International election observers deemed the presidential elections in Russia to be well organised and conducted in a correct and fair manner in comparison to Western countries, “in Russia people can express their will in a more direct and free way without the interference of those lobbies that work behind the scenes”.
The UK secret services ordered Sergei Skripal poisoning. They used this “sacrificial victim” to influence Russian elections.
Many competing and contradictory stories promulgated by Russian state-controlled media, the only connecting thread being to confuse their audience and exclude any possibility of Russian involvement euvsdisinfo.eu/disinformation-cases/?text=sergei+skripal&disinfo_issue=&date=, .
The nerve agent has been identified as Novichok (which means newcomer in Russian). It is known to be more powerful than VX and was developed in Russia in the 1970s and 1980s www.voanews.com/a/british-prime-minister-russia-poisoning-spy/4294683.html, . It's so unusual, that very few scientists outside of Russia have any real experience in dealing with it and no country outside of Russia is known to have developed the substance edition.cnn.com/2018/03/13/europe/what-is-novichok-nerve-agent-intl/index.html, , theconversation.com/what-we-know-about-novichok-the-newby-nerve-agents-linked-to-russia-93264, .
In its statement, the European Union expressed shock at the offensive use of any military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, for the first time on European soil in over 70 years. www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2018/03/19/statement-by-the-foreign-affairs-council-on-the-salisbury-attack/,