Sputnik: Now that the interview has been aired, what position does it put the UK into?
Alan Bailey: Sadly I believe that the UK government will say that the interview with the guys identified in the CCTV footage proves nothing. I watched the interview and the guys would not say who they work for beyond that they are in business. The UK government has taken this so far that they will say without evidence of them being normal businessmen beyond them saying they are, that this proves guilt that they are GRU or Military. So I feel it will make no change in the UK governments accusations. I take no pleasure in feeling this way.
Sputnik: What reaction are you expecting from London and the Western community for this matter?
Sputnik: What do you make of London's attempts to present the two as agents of GRU and imply that the Skripal attack was approved at a senior level of the Russian state?
Alan Bailey: To me and many others this is one more piece of blatant propaganda and Russophobia. Proof and reality mean nothing to the UK government of late and this whole scenario makes zero sense…
A worthless ex Spy who has no doubt given all the info he has to the UK government. Why send assassins direct from Russia by plane? Why then use a method to attempt to kill Skripal that would obviously be traced to Russia as a source even though many countries have access to it? What happened to poison pens and the like which could be sourced by any secret services worldwide? They may as well have drawn large in the sky that they were Russian and there to kill a traitor…
It's just not the way such operations would be carried out.
READ MORE: 5 Things We've Learned From Interview With Skripal Poisoning "Suspects"
Sputnik: With the latest developments in mind, where is the whole Skripal saga is leading us to?
Alan Bailey: The Skripal saga is yet one more piece of a puzzle to attempt to isolate Russia. Everything we have seen since 2013 and even previous has been designed to picture Russia as a 'rogue state' lead by a crazed Dictator. This is one more reinforcement of this policy. They are fully aware Russia has a policy of not extraditing citizens to trial abroad so they know very well that they will be very unlikely to apprehend the guys, but the aim is to continue to damage Russia's image abroad and stop trade and co-operation between western states and Russia.
I would also like to add that so far a much smaller proportion of the UK public believes that the Skripal case was carried out by the Russian Government. I myself received many messages from UK friends who are by no means 'Pro Russian' stating that the whole case seems very odd and they feel the UK government is 'playing games' based on geo-political aims.
The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
