First Secretary of State Dominic Raab delivers a speech on the
first day of the annual Conservative Party conference at the
Manchester Central convention complex in Manchester, north-west
England on September 29, 2019. Conservative party MPs and activists
gathered Sunday for what could be its final conference before an
election, promising to “get Brexit done”. Paul ELLIS /
AFP
Britain on Sunday said Russia had “a very serious
set of questions to answer” about the poisoning of opposition
leader Alexei Navalny, suggesting some form of state involvement in
the high-profile case.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was “clear” the Kremlin
critic was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, which
was previously used in an attack against a Russian former double
agent in Salisbury, southwest England, in 2018.
Germany, where Navalny is being treated after falling ill last
month, has said there was “unequivocal evidence” of the use of the
agent but Moscow has said there was no proof of poisoning.
“It’s very difficult, when it comes to the question of
attribution, to think of a plausible explanation of being anyone
other than some emanation of the Russian state, simply because
Novichok is hard to get your hands on, hard to control,” Raab told
Sky News television.
“And so what is clear right now is that Russian government has a
very serious set of questions to answer.”
Raab spoke to his German counterpart Heiko Mass on Thursday and
said Britain would work with the Organisation for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons to push Russia for answers.
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The probe would establish whether there was state involvement,
he said, calling the use of chemical weapons “abhorrent” and “pure
gangsterism”.
British relations with Russia have been strained since the
attempted murder, allegedly by Russian agents, of former spy Sergei
Skripal in Salisbury two years ago.
READ ALSO: Russia Accuses Germany Of Stalling
Navalny Probe
Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, survived the attack, in which
Novichok was thought to have been smeared on a door handle at their
home in the city.
A police officer also fell ill and recovered but one woman died
four months later after coming into contact with a perfume bottle
thought to have contained the chemical weapon.
The attack came 12 years after Russia was suspected of being
behind the radiation poisoning death of former KGB agent Alexander
Litvinenko in London. Russia denied involvement in both
attacks.
London earlier this year accused Russia-linked hackers of
attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research from UK, US and
Canadian labs, and of trying to interfere in last year’s general
election.
It also slapped sanctions on 25 Russians for their alleged
involvement in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in
jail in 2009 after uncovering alleged large-scale tax fraud by
Russian officials.
AFP
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