Russia has reignited discussions around the 2018 Salisbury poisonings (Image: Getty)
The Russian embassy has called on the UK Government to “tell the truth” about the Salisbury poisonings, which targeted former military defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the Wiltshire town seven years ago.
has released a statement demanding “access” to Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were hospitalised after coming into contact with the deadly nerve agent Novichok on March 4, 2018. They survived the attack, but 44-year-old mother of three Dawn Sturgess died three months later after being accidentally exposed to the same poison.
The UK charged Russian nationals Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with crimes, including conspiracy to murder in absentia, and imposed sanctions against Moscow in the wake of the attack.
One day after the seventh anniversary of the initial poisonings, however, has reignited discussions around the incident, alleging that it was “exploited to undermine -UK relations”.
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The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the poisonings (Image: PA)
In a statement issued on Wednesday morning, the embassy said the UK had “hastily assigned false blame to ” following the outcry in 2018 and “refused to liaise with Moscow on the issue”.
“Now, with the passing of time and in light of recent global events, the true scale and significance of this provocation are becoming increasingly clear,” a spokesperson added.
“We will continue to demand credible information from UK authorities regarding Sergei and Yulia Skripal, as well as access to them in order to verify that they are not under any form of coercion.
“Given that this provocation was in reality directed against , we will [also] persist in calling on the UK authorities to disclose the truth – not politically driven narratives, but hard facts – about what really happened in Salisbury on March 4, 2018,” they added.
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Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in ‘s Military Intelligence Service, was convicted as a double agent for MI6 in 2006 and was freed to move to the UK as part of a prisoner exchange in 2010.
The Kremlin has consistently denied any involvement with the poisonings.
The two men flew back to in March 2018 and claimed that they had been visiting Salisbury to admire the “123 metre-high spire” of the city’s cathedral.
The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.