Two Russian citizens, Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, were formally named by UK authorities as GRU agents and suspects in the poisoning, which took place in Salisbury in March this year.
The Russian government however has continually denied any involvement in the poisonings, citing a lack of conclusive evidence.
Sputnik: What questions are still remaining in the Skripal case?
Victor also suggested that the Skripals may be being held against their will by UK authorities. He went on to explain that no conclusive evidence has yet been produced by the British authorities to implicate the Russian state in the poisoning…
Victor Olevich: There is no evidence presented by the British authorities of the Russian citizens that have been accused of being involved in this incident of having anything to do with it. Since the only photos that London has presented so far is of these Russian citizens simply being in an airport, or being in various parts of Salisbury, but nowhere close to the site of the incident.
When it came to the evidence put forward by the investigative website Bellingcat, Victor had reservations as to how far their findings could be trusted…
Victor Olevich: I would dispute the claim that Bellingcat is an amateurish term. It is a venture set up on purpose by British special services as a base where they can leak or send or expose information that works in their favor — or that is falsified on many occasions — and then Bellingcat is used by British and other western press outlets as an independent source of information. In fact the information that Bellingcat has provided on a number of topics — not just on the Skripal case but on a number of other issues such as events in Syria and other regions of the world — have been known to be untrue and always to be in line with the needs of the British government and British secret services.
The views and opinions expressed in this article by Victor Olevich are solely those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect Sputnik's position.