6 Apr 2018 10:59

Nebenzya: Skripal posed no threat to Russia

NEW YORK (UN). April 6 (Interfax) - Former colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Sergei Skripal posed no threat to Russia, and Moscow had nothing to do with his poisoning, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya told the UN Security Council.

"Clearly, he [Skripal] was no threat to Russia [...] We have a number of questions. First of all, cynically speaking, why wait eight years and do this two weeks before the presidential election in Russia and a matter of weeks before the FIFA World Cup? Why let him leave the country at all? Why neutralize him in such a strange and high-profile manner, which is dangerous to the perpetrators and the public?" Nebenzya said at the UN Security Council's meeting on the Skripal case.

"There are many questions about this murky case; the farther [we go], the more [there are]," he said.

Nebenzya said that an antidote must have been administered to Skripal and his daughter after they were poisoned with the nerve gas, and that the antidote might have been of the same type.

"If a super-strong substance was actually sprayed inside the Skripal house or applied to the door handle, which the investigators seem to believe, how could Sergei and Yulia have been okay for several hours? Police Sgt. Nick Bailey, who was the first to come to their rescue, fainted immediately. How could all of them have survived?" Nebenzya said.

"The only explanation that comes to mind is that all of them were given an antidote. All experts agree that this would require a sample of exactly the same substance, not just something similar," he said.