Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia have relocated to New Zealand two years after suffering a near-fatal poisoning attempt that Britain pins on Russia […]
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“… a destabilization campaign in Moldova … the poisoning of an arms dealer in Bulgaria …. a thwarted coup in Montenegro. … an attempt to assassinate a former Russian spy in Britain using a nerve agent. … Western security officials have … concluded that these operations, and potentially many others, are part of a coordinated and ongoing campaign to destabilize […]
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“… Trump … signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on Russia, responding to growing pressure from Congress to further punish Moscow after a nerve agent attack …. the second round of sanctions by the administration after a botched attempt in March 2018 to fatally poison a former Russian military intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, in … Salisbury [in the UK]. […]
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YAROSLAVL. May 18 (Interfax) – Former Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, who were poisoned in April 2018 in Salisbury, the United Kingdom, are alive, but they are not maintaining contacts with their relatives in Russia, Viktoria Skripal, Sergei’s niece, said in an interview with Interfax on Saturday. “As far as I know, [Sergei […]
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“… former sports reporter … [Yuri Dud] runs his own YouTube interview show …. generat[ing] millions of views … a serious competitor even to state-owned TV. … [T]he subject of Dud’s latest show shocked his … 5 million [subscribers] and the general public: a two-hour documentary about the Kolyma region, in Russia’s far northeast … almost synonymous with Stalin-era repressions. […]
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“Russian state media published 138 contradictory accounts of the nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal last year …”
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“… Bellingcat has been able to confirm the actual identity of one of the two officers. The suspect using the cover identity of ‘Ruslan Boshirov’ is in fact Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, a highly decorated GRU officer bestowed with Russia’s highest state award, Hero of the Russian Federation. Following Bellingcat’s own identification, multiple sources familiar with the person and/or the investigation have […]
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(Interfax – September 19, 2018) The Russian Interior Ministry has said it is impossible to establish whether a person works for the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence, based on the Federal Migration Service’s (FMS) database. The Interior Ministry thereby dismissed the joint investigation by the Bellingcat investigative site and Russian website The Insider, according to which the suspects in ex-spy Sergei […]
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“The retired agent has doubted that Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Bochirov are plausible as killers after they were spotted numerous times on CCTV … The pair, who are suspected of poisoning the Skripals, were spotted numerous times on CCTV and entered the country on Russian passports. Choosing to remain anonymous, the ex-spy said the two men, who claimed to be […]
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“They were, they declared, just tourists. Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – identified … as … Russian intelligence agents who poisoned four people in … Salisbury – were simply on vacation …. This type of tactic has a history. … [During] the invasion of Crimea … Putin insisted … Russian troops marching across the peninsula were locals who … picked […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 14, 2018) The United States has said Russia would be able to avoid a second, more punishing round of sanctions over the nerve-agent attack in Britain if it allows chemical weapons inspections. The U.S. sided with the U.K. last month in concluding that Moscow had used a nerve agent against a former Russian agent […]
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(Article ©2018 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Sept. 14, 2018 – also appeared at rferl.org/a/kremlin-says-it-would-consider-british-request-over-skripal-poisoning-suspects/29489831.html) The Kremlin says it will study any British request to question the two men London suspects of trying to murder a former spy, in strict accordance with Russian law. But spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no such request has been received so far. […]
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MOSCOW. Sept 13 (Interfax) – Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, whom the United Kingdom suspects of poisoning former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, said in an interview shown on RT that they were engaged in business related to sports nutrition, and this is the purpose of their occasional trips abroad. “We study the […]
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“Sergei V. Skripal was a little fish. … But … Skripal was significant [to] … Putin, an intelligence officer of the same age and training. … When [the intelligence war between the USSR and the West] was suspended, both struggled to adapt. … While … Skripal was trying to reinvent himself, … Putin and his allies, former intelligence officers, were […]
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“… [N]ew sanctions imposed on Russia … [feature] a ban on export of anything with a potential military use, announced by the State Department …. Putin’s Russia is asking for punishment when his agents use a chemical weapon against a double agent, brazenly meddle in Western elections, cheat in international sports, ruthlessly ravage Ukrainian territory or violate human rights. … […]
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“… On Friday, PM Dmitry Medvedev called potential new US sanctions ‘economic war,’ noting that Russia must respond with economic, political, and if necessary, other methods. Today, Russian … [commentators] discuss Moscow’s options. …”
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“… A British security source … [said] the nerve agent attack on the former double agent Sergei Skripal was also ordered by the [GRU] intelligence agency. The British government is poised to submit an extradition request to Moscow for two Russians suspected of carrying out the Salisbury attack that left one person dead and three injured, including Skripal and his […]
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“… The latest poisoning raised the prospect that in their haste to flee the area, the would-be assassins simply tossed aside a top secret, Soviet-designed weapon that the British authorities, despite a cleanup operation that lasted weeks, failed to discover. …” Click here for: “Novichok Was in a Perfume Bottle, U.K. Victim Says” – New York Times/Michael Schwirtz, Eric Schmitt […]
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“… along Salisbury’s shopping streets, residents and businesspeople compare notes on the questions that remain unanswered. …”
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“… The State Department should consider adding [Russia] to its list of state sponsors of terrorism, alongside its close allies Iran and Syria. … Russia has invaded … Georgia and Ukraine … supports the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad and our enemies in Afghanistan … is engaged in active information warfare against Western democracies, including meddling in the 2016 United […]
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“Unless you give a testimony, doctor, that there wasn’t a gas attack, we’ll be killing your children”
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(Article ©2018 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – April 18, 2018 – also appeared at rferl.org/a/british-media-regulator-probing-rt-s-impartiality-after-salisbury-poisoning/29174828.html) Britain’s media watchdog has started probing whether Russian news channel RT broke impartiality rules in its programs after a former Russian double agent and his daughter were poisoned in the English city of Salisbury last month. Media regulator Ofcom warned on […]
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“Russia longs to be taken seriously in matters of global affairs, but … Putin has demonstrated … disdain for the rules-based post-World War II order. What does Russia want instead? In two recent incidents involving the use of outlawed chemicals[, the assassination attempt on Skripal in Britain and a chemical weapons attack in Syria], Russia’s answer has been a frantic […]
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“Russia has been researching the application of chemical agents to door handles as a way to assassinate its enemies, and has been training personnel ‘from special units’ to carry out such attacks, said Mark Sedwill, Britain’s national security adviser … in a letter to the secretary general of NATO. … Sedwill’s letter, the most detailed account of British intelligence on […]
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“… Trump … said the U.S. could aid Russia’s economy and sought an end to what he called an ‘arms race,’ lamenting that relations with Moscow had reached an all-time low. …Trump … on Twitter warned Russia that missiles ‘will be coming’ in Syria following a suspected chemical attack and chided … Putin for being ‘partners’ with … Assad. … […]
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“A world grown numb to the slaughter of civilians in Syria has been roused in the last 48 hours by photographs on social media of lifeless men, women and children in the rebel-held town of Douma, many with white foam coming from their mouths and nostrils, victims of chemical weapons. Outraged Western nations blame President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and demand […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 10, 2018) Russia said on Tuesday it will propose to the United Nations that international inspectors visit the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town of Douma, a move which follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning of quick, forceful action in response to the incident. At least 60 people were […]
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“Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal is no longer in critical condition and his health is improving rapidly more than a month since he [and his daugter were] poisoned with a nerve agent …. Britain said they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent first developed by the Soviet Union. Russia has denied it had anything to do with the first […]
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“… Gary Aitkenhead, chief executive of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, told Sky News they were not yet able to prove it was made in Russia. … ‘We were able to identify it as novichok, to identify that it was military-grade’ … he confirmed the substance required ‘extremely sophisticated methods to create, something only in […]
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“British officials investigating the poisoning of Sergei V. Skripal … former Russian double agent, believe it is likely that an assassin smeared a nerve agent on the door handle at his home. … so risky and sensitive that it is unlikely to have been undertaken without approval from the Kremlin …. Skripal … was freed in a spy swap with […]
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[Interfax reports that Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, appearing on Russian television, has accused Britain of using the Skripal case to give a new boost to the anti-Russian campaign:] MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) – The United Kingdom has used the Skripal case to give a new boost to the anti-Russian campaign in the West; the absence of information and non-disclosure […]
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(Kremlin.ru – September 27, 2017) The President listened to a report via videoconference on the destruction of Russia’s last remaining chemical weapons. Mikhail Babich, Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District and Chairman of the State Commission for Chemical Disarmament, reported to President Vladimir Putin on the completion of chemical disarmament ahead of schedule. Also in attendance at the […]
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MOSCOW. April 13 (Interfax) – Russia has submitted an initiative during a special session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague on Thursday to set up a mission under OPCW auspices to investigate the chemical incident in Syria’s Idlib governorate, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference. […]
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[“Russia, NATO plan joint operation on Syria’s chemical weapons” – Reuters – Gabriela Baczynska and Adrian Croft – February 14, 2014 – reuters.com/article/2014/02/14/us-syria-crisis-russia-nato-idUSBREA1D0Y120140214] Reuters covers plans for a NATO-Russian joint naval operation in the Mediterranean to protect a U.S. ship playing a role in the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons. The mission would be a cooperative step even as Russian […]
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MOSCOW, January 7 (RIA Novosti) The first consignment of chemical weapons has left the Syrian port of Latakia on a Danish cargo vessel, the international chemical weapons watchdog said on Tuesday. “The removal of the first consignment of priority chemicals from the Syrian Arab Republic took place today,” the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a […]
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MOSCOW, November 8 (RIA Novosti) Russia considers unfounded US skepticism over the sincerity of Syria’s declaration of its chemical weapon stockpiles, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday. US envoy to the United Nations Samantha Power said earlier this week that Washington was closely reviewing Syria’s declaration of its chemical weapons stockpiles, in light of a history of “years […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) – Russia will make a decision on the degree of its financial contribution to the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons in the near future, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “The Russian material contribution was considered during these consultations. We don’t yet have a reason to publicly announce its parameters, but we are about to make […]
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(Interfax – BRUSSELS, October 15, 2013) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called the Russian-U.S. understandings on Syria’s chemical weapons a renaissance of diplomacy aimed not at building coalitions but at reaching common goals. Speaking at the Brussels-based Royal Institute for International Relations (Egmont Institute), Lavrov suggested that the world has switched to a polycentric from a bipolar system of […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Gasyuk, Nora FitzGerald, special to RBTH, October 8, 20-13) There is a long journey ahead to audit and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons program, analysts agree, and there are many concerns and inevitable delays in the days and weeks ahead. Yet the international community is closer than it has ever been to eradicating […]
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(Interfax – October 8, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has welcomed the Syrian leadership’s response to the Russian-US proposal for eliminating the country’s chemical weapons, adding that he hoped this work would continue in the pace and spirit it had started in. He also expressed satisfaction with the position his US counterpart Barack Obama had taken on Syria. Putin was […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 2, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was content with the situation development regarding chemical weapons liquidation in Syria. “Judging by what work related to the Syrian chemical weapons liquidation is currently being held, we have grounds to think that we are on the right path,” Putin said when answering questions at the Investment Forum […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, October 1, 2013) Russia announced Tuesday it will carry out its own investigation into chemical weapons attacks in Syria as an international disarmament inspection team, reportedly comprising one Russian, arrived in the Middle Eastern nation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow wanted to establish who was behind the August poison attack and criticized Western […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 26, 2013) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with a US newspaper published Thursday that homemade sarin nerve agent was used in a chemical weapons attack in Damascus on August 21, an attack that the United States maintains was carried out by the Syrian regime. Lavrov gave an interview to The […]
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(RIA Novosti – NEW YORK, September 25, 2013) Russia insists that all chemical weapons in Syria, including chemical arms components possibly held by Syrian opposition forces, should be destroyed, the Russian foreign minister said. Speaking after a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in New York early on Wednesday, Moscow time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said […]
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(Interfax – VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, September 23, 2013) Syria may still be in danger of a military strike from abroad if it fulfills its commitment to scrap all its chemical weapons because there may be “some other pretext” for war, the Kremlin’s top aide said. Sergei Ivanov, president Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff, said in a program on Saturday on Russia’s […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 24, 2013) Any arguments presented by the West that it was President Bashar al-Assad’s regime that carried out a chemical attack in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21 can be overturned, which is being done today, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “Strong objections can be presented in response to all of the arguments […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 24, 2013) The United Nations Security Council may permit armed intervention in Syria only if that government refuses to fulfill obligations, such as removing chemical weapons stockpiles, a senior Russian government official said Tuesday. Washington and Moscow are expected to clash at the UN General Assembly later this week over the terms of a […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 19, 2013) The estimates of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to which the disposal of Syrian chemical weapons would require approximately one year and cost about $1 billion, are fairly accurate, Chairman of the Council on the Foreign and Defense Policy Fyodor Lukyanov said. “It is probably close to the truth. What foreign countries are saying […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 18, 2013) Russia intends to provide the proof, provided by Damascus, that the opposition used chemical weapons in eastern Ghouta near Damascus, to the UN Security Council. “Of course, we will provide all of this to the UN Security Council,” Russian Foreign Minister told reporters following his speech at the Valdai Discussion Club. This proof has […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 17, 2013) Armed Syrian opposition could have used parts of Soviet ammunition when preparing the chemical attack in the vicinity of Damascus, editor-in-chief of the Natsionalnaya Oborona (National Defense) magazine Igor Korotchenko told RIA Novosti news agency on 17 September. The UN report confirming the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which was published on 16 […]
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