"Nearly a year and a half after the events in Salisbury with the former Russian military intelligence officer and his daughter, the Russian side never received any intelligible information about the investigation into the incident despite the more than 80 requests we sent through diplomatic channels. Trying to fill this vacuum, the British stubbornly continue to invent various stories and myths, passing them off as confirmed facts," the embassy stated.
"All the arguments on the basis of which the so-called evidence of Russia's involvement in this mysterious incident was built and which the former British Prime Minister Theresa May loudly stated, failed miserably. Obviously, the reason for this behaviour lies in the fact that the disclosure of all the details of this dark history is not in the interests of official London," the statement reads.
Russian diplomats suggested that British authorities manipulated the opinion of the UK and international public through the media to keep the Salisbury theme “afloat” and “engaged in outright disinformation, spreading fake news.”
“The fact that the United States, without any incontrovertible evidence, recently introduced a second package of sanctions against Russia in connection with the events in Salisbury, eloquently speaks about who orders music in this full-scale anti-Russian campaign,” the statement from the embassy reads.
The Russian embassy was supported by the Head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky, who suggested that the “unprecedented scandal involving the expulsion of diplomats, sanctions against Russia, including those announced in the United States just a few days ago […] doesn’t have any basis.”
In March 2018, Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench near a shopping centre in Salisbury. London claimed they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent and accused Moscow of staging the attack. Moscow has repeatedly refuted all accusations. On Wednesday the Guardian reported that British police are investigating whether Russian President Vladimir Putin could have been involved in the assassination attempt on Skripal by approving a plan to eliminate him. However, according to the deputy head of Scotland Yard, Neil Basu, British law enforcement authorities have examined many hypotheses, but do not have evidence to make such allegations.