DISINFO: Litvinenko and Skripal cases are driven by Russophobia
SUMMARY
The recent developments with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to find Russia accountable for the death of Alexander Litvinenko and with the charges against a third person for the poisoning with Novichok of Sergey and Yulia Skripal are driven by Russophobia and anti-Russian motives.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation about the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Skripals.
Recently, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a decision with which it holds Russia accountable for the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. The court said there was a "strong presumption" that Litvinenko had been assassinated by individuals "acting as agents of the Russian state". It also added the Russian government "failed to provide any other satisfactory and convincing explanation of the events", nor did it carry out "an effective domestic investigation" aimed at identifying and punishing those responsible.
On 21 January 2016, Sir Robert Owen presided over a High-Court inquiry into the death of a British citizen/ Russian defector, Alexander Litvinenko. A report into Mr Litvinenko's death was presented. It found that two Russian men, Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitriy Kovtun, deliberately poisoned Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 by putting a radioactive substance, polonium-210, into his drink at a hotel. A few chapters of the report are dedicated to the responsibility of the Russian side. Amongst other things, the report says that "taking full account of all the evidence and analysis available to me, I find that the FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin".
Moscow's involvement in the poisoning of the Skripals has also been proven via a thorough investigation. The British Police have presented a solid chain of evidence on the Skripal case, with pictures, connecting the suspects to the locations in the case. Parts of the material have been released to the public. The evidence was sufficient to charge two Russian nationals, Anatoliy Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin with the attack on the Skripals, both Russian military intelligence operatives from the GRU, who travelled to the UK using fake names and documents.
Following this attack, the United Kingdom notified the OPCW, invited them to confirm the identity of the substance involved, and briefed members of the Security Council. The OPCW’s independent expert laboratories confirmed the UK’s identification of the Russian produced Novichok nerve agent.
See here the EU statement on the Salisbury attack.
See more disinformation cases on the Skripals poisoning in Salisbury and the Litvinenko poisoning.