“As chemical weapons specialists clad in hazmat suits combed the city centre for traces of novichok in March 2018, Salisbury would have had a claim to be ranked among the worst places. Yet the city has bounced back, rating highly on most of the attributes measured by our 2019 Best Places to Live in Britain guide – particularly the community spirit that helped overcome the shock, fear and confusion spawned by the attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter Yulia”, the newspaper wrote.
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The city has been lauded for its “energetic, close-knit population”, as well as clean air and burgeoning cultural life. Also on the list of the best places to live in the United Kingdom are the small town of Petworth in West Sussex, Topsham in Devon, and the Isle of Dogs district in London. The Scottish city of Dundee and Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk as well as Holywood, a town in Northern Ireland, have also made the cut.
London claimed they were allegedly poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent A234 and accused Moscow of staging the attack, provoking a huge international scandal.
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The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed the claims about Russia's involvement in the attack and stressed that Moscow has been denied access to both to the investigation into the incident and to the Russian nationals in question.
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