Russia fighting new Cold War against Britain, MP says
Sergei Lavrov says claims Moscow was involved in the nerve-agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter are mere "propaganda".
Friday 9 March 2018 21:29, UK
Russia is fighting a new Cold War against Britain which people need to be aware of, an MP has warned.
Former Army Sergeant and current Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, also said it was "very likely" Moscow is behind the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Mr Seely, who is also a former Soviet Union reporter for The Times, said the investigation needs to be balanced and facts need to be established before fingers are pointed.
He told Sky News: "Regardless of whether the Russians are involved in this case, they are fighting a new Cold War against us and you need to wisen up to that fact.
"This is very likely the Russians - you don't get nerve agent down the freezer aisle in Morrisons.
"This comes from one or two places in the world, and one of them is the Russians. They have form in this, they have malign intent.
"It is very very unlikely to be someone else."
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The Skripals remain in "a very serious condition" in hospital after they were found slumped on a park bench in Salisbury on Sunday evening.
, 38, is also in a serious condition. He is believed to have been the first person at the scene, although there are now suggestions he may have become ill after retracing Mr Skripal's steps from his home in Salisbury.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said all the evidence pointed to the nerve agent attack being ordered by the Kremlin.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd warned the Government is "committed to doing all we can to bring the perpetrators to justice - whoever they are and wherever they may be".
The Kremlin insists it is not involved.
On Friday Russia's foreign minister said the country would consider helping UK authorities investigate the poisoning.
Mr Skripal served four years of a 13 year sentence in Russia after he was caught spying for MI6 and was released as part of a spy exchange in 2010, then given refuge in the UK.
Sergei Lavrov expressed resentment at suggestions that Moscow was behind the nerve agent attack on the Skripals, calling such claims "propaganda".
"What we see is only news reports ... saying that if it is Russia, then a response is going to be given that Russia is going to remember forever," Mr Lavrov said during a visit to Addis Ababa.
"That is not serious. This is propaganda fair and square and it is trying to raise tensions."
Mary DejevAG百家乐在线官网, a former foreign correspondent, said she was shocked at "how far people have gone in implicating Russia before there is the slightest bit of proof".
"We should be finding culprits, not second guessing Russia before we've got any evidence at all," she told Sky News.
Sunday's attack has drawn comparisons with the case of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium at a London hotel in 2006.
On his deathbed he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind his radiation poisoning.
Scotland Yard said the evidence suggested that the "only credible explanation is one way or another the Russian state" was involved.
Russia refused to extradite the main suspect, former Russia agent Andrey Lugovoy, to the UK to face charges.