DISINFO: The “Salisbury incident” was provoked by the UK government to divert attention from Brexit-associated problems and to demonise Russia
SUMMARY
The poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, known as the “Salisbury incident”, was provoked by the UK government as part of a “dead cat strategy” aimed at diverting public attention from its Brexit-associated problems and at demonising Russia. The UK government has never provided any credible and verifiable proof of Russia’s involvement in the Skripals’ poisoning. All accusations against Russia turned out to be groundless. The government of Theresa May has always ignored the repeated proposals by the Russian side for constructive cooperation in the investigation of this case.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that Russia has nothing to do with the poisoning of former Russian GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, marking now its one year anniversary. The UK government has provided hard evidence for Russia's involvement in the poisoning. British police and intelligence investigations have produced hard evidence which was sufficient to charge two Russian nationals – identified as officers of the Russian Military Intelligence, GRU – for the attack on the Skripals. More UK public documents/statements on the case here and here. The EU Member States support the UK findings, and decided unanimously to introduce sanctions against the GRU officers responsible and their commanding officers. Background: EUvsDisinfo has already collected 138 different narratives about the Skripal case. Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson maintained that when someone is being defeated in an argument, the best thing to do is to “throw a dead cat on the table”. This tactics is supposed to attract attention and distract from the real problems. Boris Johnson spoke about a ‘dead cat’ in 2013, 5 years before the Skripal case, and he was referring to EU autocrats and the euro. References to 'dead cat' have been repeated by pro-Kremlin outlets before, see disinfo cases here, here and here.