Craig Murray Nails Theresa May's Latest Lies on the Skripal WMD Poisonings

For all the lies, bunk and bullshit with which it is bestrewn, the alt media still provide vastly better information, if you know where to look, than the pathetic lying and fortunately dying, mainstream media. As proof, one needs only to read Ambassador Craig Murray's latest piece on the Skripal Poisonings story. In it, Murray entirely destroys the narrative as announced by Britain's Prime Misformer, Theresa May, and repeated with variations and elaborations by the entire UK and foreign corporate media, and the Western government propaganda agencies the BBC, the Gruniard, the CBC, VOA, etc.

What Murray demonstrates is that the British Government's "proof" of guilt of the Russians, Petrov and Boshirov, in the Skripal poisonings as announced by Theresa may in the House of Commons,  is a farrago of nonsense, and that while it remains unknown, the real story of the poisonings (if indeed the Skripals were indeed poisoned, a fact for which, as I have argued, there is reason to doubt) has to be something entirely different from May's bollocks delivered to Parliament. In fact, May's Parliamentary statements about the Skripal poisonings are so obviously mendacious that a competent opposition would have by now forced the Prime Minister to resign for lying to Parliament.

Here, I will not endeavor to summarize Murray's article which has the clarity and brevity characteristic of Murray's blog posts. Rather, anyone remotely interested in the mechanics of the anti-Russian propaganda op. involving the Russian traitor, Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, should read Murray's article, The Incredible Case of Boshirov and Petrov’s Visas, for themselves.

Related: 

Southfront.org: ANOTHER VERSION ATTEMPTING TO EXPLAIN TRIP OF ‘GRU AGENTS’ PETROV AND BOSHIROV TO SALISBURY

Britain's Novichok Poisonings: An Opportunistic Anti-Russian Propaganda Operation?

What follows is a hypothesis to explain the reported Novichok poisonings of the Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia, and the Amesbury couple, Charlie Rowley and the late Dawn Sturgess.

In formulating this hypothesis I have drawn on information and ideas provided by some of those commenting on Ambassador Craig Murrray's blog, and on what is known of the physiological action of nerve agents and opiates.

In considering this hypothesis, readers should be aware that what I am proposing is stark contradiction of the May Government's position and the  claims attributed by British media to police and Security Service sources. However, such police and Security Services statements quoted thus far have a high degree of deniability in the event that evidence to emerge in the future renders the narrative they promote inoperative, to use the immortal terminology of Richard Nixon's press secretary, Ron Ziegler.

Thus for example, on July 19, the Guardian reported the Press Association "quoting a source with knowledge of the Skripal case as saying:"

Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time. They [the investigators] are sure they [the suspects] are Russian.

So if you find compelling the Guardian's report of the Press Association quoting what someone said to have knowledge of the case is said to have said, then read no further. 

Equally, you may find reassuring the July 20, report in the Telegraph that: 

Russian agents responsible for the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury sent a coded message to Moscow which included the phrase, "The package has been delivered"

That no indication is provided as to how it was determined either that the senders of the message were "Russian agents responsible for the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury" or that the wording "the package has been received" had anything to do with the use of a chemical weapon of mass destruction in Salisbury, England (rather than, say, the delivery of a pair of pants from the dry cleaners), may for some detract from the force of the Telegraph's story. Also questionable, is the provenance of the information, the attribution being simply to:

A British intelligence listening station based in Cyprus, [that] allegedly picked up [the] message shortly after former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, were attacked in March.

Alleged by whom, we are not to be informed. 

So, yes, why not consider an alternative account. 

In the immediate aftermath of the Skripal poisonings, the British media speculated on the possibility of fentanyl as the poison, on the assumption that the Skripals were opioid drug users poisoned by heroin cut with fentanyl. Thus the Telegraph reported on March 6:

Early reports suggested that colonel Skripal and the unnamed woman may have been exposed to the synthetic drug, Fentanyl, which is up to 10,000 times more powerful than heroin and has been linked to scores of deaths in the UK.

Which is consistent with the March 16, letter to the Times from Salisbury Trust Hospital's consultant in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Stephen Davies, who wrote:

“Sir, Further to your report (“Poison Exposure Leaves Almost 40 Needing Treatment”, Mar 14), may I clarify that no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve-agent poisoning in Salisbury and there have only ever been three patients with significant poisoning... Source

Which suggests an interpretation of the CCTV images below, which, according to the Guardian, shows: "two people walking near the spot where a former Russian spy and his daughter were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury." 

Who are those two people? The Amesbury poisoning victims, Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess? So it has been suggested.

And what about the red bag, the blonde woman is carrying? Is it the red bag found beside the bench where the Skripals were stricken?

Could the bag have delivered the poison?

In 2015, Charlie Rowley was jailed for eight weeks for:

... possession of eleven wraps of heroin and theft of £1,700 from Matthew Rowley. He was already serving a suspended sentence for driving while banned... Source

So was Charlie supplying heroin to Sergei Skripal? And if so, was the drug cut with fentanyl, creating a combination that has proved deadly to tens of thousands?

And if that's what happened, is it not possible that Charlie and his partner Dawn Sturgess, known drug users, fell victim to the same potentially lethal drug cocktail?

But if so, whence the Novichok?

One explanation, which I outlined here, is that both the Skripals, and Rowley and Burgess were not poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok but treated with Novichok as an antidote to poisoning with an the opioid respiratory inhibitor, fentanyl. 

At lethal concentrations, nerve poisons such as BZ, botulinum toxin (the latter much more poisonous that Novichok), or fentanyl inhibit the release of acetyl choline at the neuromuscular junction, resulting in respiratory arrest and death by suffocation.

The organo-phosphorus nerve agents, of which Novichok is one, have the opposite effect: they inhibit the activity of the enzyme acetyl choline esterase, thereby preventing breakdown of acetyl choline released at the neuromuscular junction. The result is convulsive muscular contraction causing death due to asphyxiation. Novichok thus has potential to serve as an antidote to fentanyl. 

Was Novichok administered to the Skripals, and to Rowley and Burgess as  an antidote to fentanyl poisoning? 

That we do not know. But we do know that staff at Britain's chemical and biological weapons research establishment at Porton Down, just a few miles from where both alleged Novichok poisonings occured, were consulted on treatment of the Skripals. 

What advice did they give? 

There appears to be no public information on that. But since fentanyl poisoning can be deadly, why would they not have proposed an organophosphorus nerve agent, such as Novichok as an antidote, even if such treatment was untested and potentially harmful?

Splendidly, from the point of view of those seeking to demonize Putin's Russia, use of Novichok as an antidote to whatever the victims were poisoned with, whether it be botulinum toxin in a seafood salad lunch, a dose of BZ administered by means unknown, or fentanyl-laced heroin, it provided a basis for accusing Russia of an atrocity on British soil.

The evidence? Why the name of the poison, of course. Novichok. With a name like that, it's got to be from Putin's Russia. 

But on what evidence was use of Novichok claimed? 

Well none at all really, except the word of Porton Down, and, in the case of the Skripals, the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Warfare, which had samples of blood from the Skripals analyzed and found them to contain Novichok. 

And that, according to the above hypothesis, Porton Down would have known without need of testing, since they themselves had supplied the Novichok and supervised its use under the carefully controlled, and therefore relatively safe, conditions of the Salisbury Trust Hospital. 

Perhaps Theresa May's or her subordinates will someday offer more conclusive evidence of Russian responsibility for the Novichok "poisonings," but don't hold your breath. 

The Novichok File (30)

March 18,2018: Skripal Tripal

April 5, 2018: NoviJoke: To Russia With Hate

April 11, 2018: Are the Skripals in Mortal Danger From the British State?
 April12, 2018: Novichok: Russia's Antidote to Seafood Poisoning?

April 13, 2018: Why Yulia Skripal, Released From Hospital, Is Being Held in UK Police Custody

April 15, 2018: 3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate: The Antidote to Novichok

April 16: The UK's Novichok Poisoning Cover-up

April 21,2018:WMD Attack in Salisbury, England: Nerve Agent, Russian Agent, Double 

April 23, 2018: British Intelligence: An Oxymoron

Agent, Triple Agent, Spiked Blood Sample, Silent Witnesses, and Propaganda

May 15, 2018: UK Academics Demolish Theresa May's Skripal Poisoning Lies

June 15, 2018: The Skripal Poisonings: How? By Whom? With What? And Where Are the Skripals Now?
July 4, 2018: More Skripal Tripal From the Land of Thereason May
July 8, 2018: Theresa May's Tangled Web Of Toxic Nerve Agent Deception

July 9, 2018: UK Ambassador, Craig Murray, Gears Up to Demolish the Lies About  the Amesbury Poisonings From Thereason May's Law 'n Order minister, Savidge Javidge
July 12, 2018: Skripal Tripal, No. 39: Where the Skripals Crossed Paths With the "Amesbury Poisonings" Couple

July 13, 2018: Novichok on a Door Knob: An Official Conspiracy Theory
July 24, 2018: Understanding Theresa May's Novichok Bollocks
July 27, 2018: Britain's Novichok Poisonings: An Opportunistic Anti-Russian Propaganda Operation?
August 28, 2018: The ducks that didn't die
August 29, 2018: Ambassador Craig Murray Examines the British Deep State's Connection with the Skripal Nerve Agent Poisonings
September 6, 2018: Theresa May's New Statement on Russia's Nerve Agent Attack in England's Green and Pleasant Land Drives Intelligence Irregulars to Renewed Effort on the Novichok File
September 13, 2018: Ambassador Craig Murray Probes the Alibi of Petrov and Bashirov, the Alleged (by Theresa May) Skripal/Novichok Poisoners
April 16, 2019: MOON OF ALABAMA CIA Director Used Fake Skripal Incident Photos To Manipulate Trump
April 16, 2019: ROB SLANE: Trump in Dumps as Spook Picks Sick Kids’n’Dead Duck Trick Pics
April 18, 2019: CRAIG MURRAY, The Official Skripal Story is a Dead Duck
July 23, 2019:Were the Skripal Poisonings a British Intelligence Service Hoax?
October 17, 2019: Skripal Tripal Part 2: Well Wadderyerknow — the Conroner's Inquest Into the Death of Dawn Sturgess Has Been Adjourned indefinitely
March 7, 2020: Craig Murray - Pure: Ten Points I Just Can’t Believe About the Official Skripal Narrative
June 17, 2020: Craig Murray - The Miracle of Salisbury: The BBC Enters 'Propaganda Hall Of Fame' With Skripals Story
June 19, 2020: 5 Facts BBC’s “The Salisbury Poisonings” Forgot to Mention
July 30, 2020: Dances With Bears: AUSTRIA CONFIRMS OPCW REPORT ON SKRIPAL FAKING BY THE BRITISH – VIENNA EXPOSES FINANCIAL TIMES LIES AND COVER-UP

Why Yulia Skripal, Released From Hospital, Is Being Held in UK Police Custody

Having reworked and extended my earlier post Novichok: Russia's Antidote to Seafood Poisoning I am more inclined than before to believe it possible that the Skripals were treated with Novichok as an antidote to botulinum toxin, it being the case that the one nerve agent, because of a difference in mode of action, could be an effective antidote to the other nerve agent, as explained in my earlier post.

To be credible, the theory must presume orchestration of the entire sequence of events. Thus, the botulinum toxin must have been deliberately administered as a sub-lethal dose in the seafood lunch that the Skripals consumed several hours before they were taken ill. (Although botulinum toxin can occur in seafood, it does not occur in fresh seafood — as opposed to canned food, since  Clostridium botulinum only produces the toxin under anoxic conditions.)

But if the affair was orchestrated, the Skripals were surely participants rather than victims in the operation, a plausible assumption since Sergei Skripal is known to have worked for MI6 and may have resumed his service to them on release from Russian gaol.

So how was it worked?

I suggest that there was a small dose of botulinum toxin added to their seafood lunch, which caused illness several hours later, but not the vomiting and convulsions as reported by the doctor who attended on them and asked that her name not be released to the public. Rather the illness would have been manifest as the paralysis characteristic of botulism. If that assumption is correct, then we must assume that the attending, unidentified doctor who described the Skripals' symptons as those of poisoning by a nerve agent of the Novichok type (i.e., a convulsant), is an agent of MI6 and that she deliberately misled the media.

Once received at the Salisbury Trust Hospital, experts in nerve agent poisoning at the nearby British Chemical and Biological Weapons research establishment would likely have been consulted, which would have created the opportunity for them to supply the hospital with British-made Novichok (a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union) as an antidote to botulinum toxin, the mechanism whereby one nerve agent counteracts another being described in my previous post. The identity of this antidote may well not have been disclosed to the Hospital staff.

After that, the Skripals may have been kept in a more or less comotose state with, perhaps repeated small doses of botulinum toxin, which would have necessitated continual infusions of Novichok to prevent paralysis and death by asphyxiation. That would explain why, weeks after the initial poisoning, blood samples of the "victims" still contained detectable quantities of Novichok, as established by independent testing of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). It would also explain why Yulia Skripal, though released from hospital, is in UK police custody.

The objective now, if the above scenario is a more or less accurate representation of actual events, must be to keep the Skripals out of the hands of the Russian state, where they could be forced to disclose their complicity in a psyop. perpetrated to undermine the credibility and moral standing of the Russian government. That would explain the offer by the CIA to give the Skripals new identities.

Related: 
Sergei Lavrov: UK staged the Syrian chemical weapons attack
Craig Murray: Just Who’s Pulling the Strings?

Novichok: Russia's Antidote to Seafood Poisoning?

UK PM, Theresa May, already in a state of Russophobic arousal because of the alleged nerve-agent poisoning of a retired Russian spy on British Soil, is now ready to follow Tony Bliar by entering into an Anglo-American war of aggression against a small middle-Eastern power, based on a pack of lies: specifically, the allegation by the usual head-chopping suspects that Syrian President Assad is killing his own people with chemical weapons. Examination of the published evidence, however, reveals a total lack of substance. 

For example, US Secretary of Defense, General Mattis, a few hours ago told Congress that "he believes" that there was a chemical attack in Syria, but added that "the United States wants inspectors on the ground soon since the job of collecting evidence becomes more difficult as time passed."

So what Mattis knows about events in Douma at the time of the alleged chlorine gas attack is, apparently, nothing. But for the sake of the pro-war narrative, Mattis "believes" what there is no evidence for believing.

As for Britain's celebrated nerve agent attack on the former Russian Spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, it is interesting to note that the Skripals became ill several hours after a seafood lunch.

That is interesting because the time of onset of symptoms of poisoning relative to the time of their midday meal, i.e., an interval of several hours, is consistent with seafood poisoning, not nerve agent poisoning, which takes effect within seconds of contact.

Seafood poisoning can be due to the presence many different toxins,* including botulinum toxin, which inhibits release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction, thereby causing paralysis and, in severe cases, death by asphyxiation.

Image source

To counter the toxin, it would be reasonable, therefore, in a severe case, to treat patients with an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor to maximize the effect of whatever small quantity of acetylcholine is still being released into the synaptic cleft of the neuromuscular junction. Thus, if the Salisbury Trust Hospital where the Skripals were taken for treatment had requested the assistance of people at Britain's nearby Porton Down chemical and biological weapons research lab, as surely they would have, then they may well have been supplied with a small dose of British-made Novichok,** a most powerful choline esterase inhibitor, to increase the persistence of whatever acetylcholine was being produced at the neuromuscular junction***. 

By inhibiting the action of acetylcholinesterase a nerve agent such

as Novichok increases the persistence of acetyl choline in the cleft

of the neuromuscular junction, thereby countering the inhibition of 

acetyl choline release caused by botulinum toxin. Image source.

If that were the case, then the British Government would have the perfect set-up for the incitement of Russophobia. Specifically, they would have been in a position to supply the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with blood samples of the afflicted Russians that contained traces of Novichok,  a nerve agent "of a type developed in Russia," as British Government representatives, from Theresa May on down, have repeatedly stated.

Note:
Clearly the account of the Skripals' poisoning offered here is speculative, but it centers on a theory as to how the blood samples from the Skripals could have contained traces of Novichok in a way consistent with the letter to the Times from the Salisbury Trust Hospital's Resident in Emergency Medicine, Stephen Davies. In that letter, Davies said "no patients have experienced nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury:"  a true statement if the Skripals were treated with, not poisoned by, Novichok. Botulinum toxin, it is true, is also a nerve agent, but considered, in the present context, not as a nerve agent but a form of food poisoning. 

————
* Seafoods may contain many kinds of toxin, mostly of a type known as nerve agents, aka WMD's. The various toxins are produced by different microorganisms. Some toxins act as sodium-channel blockers, thereby preventing the spreading wave of electrical depolarization of nerve cell membranes that constitutes a nerve impulse.

A common microbial contaminant of seafood is Clostridium botulinum, which in one survey was found in about one quarter of all fish and shellfish samples tested. In the absence of oxygen, for example in canned fish that has been incompletely sterilized, Clostridium botulinum produces botulinum toxin, the deadliest poison known, ten billionths of a gram being sufficient to cause death.

As an inhibitor of acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction, botulinum toxin causes paralysis. The effect of botulinum toxin should thus be countered by nerve agents such as Novichok an inhibitor acetylcholine esterase, which causes tetany, or intense muscle contraction, by preventing break-down of whatever acetylcholine is released at the neuromuscular juction.

** According to Cornell University Chemistry Professor, Dave Collum, Novichok is a simple compound that could be prepared by his third year organic chemistry students. It is almost certain, therefore, that the Porton Down lab would have a supply of Novichok on hand.

*** Zakhari, J.S. et al. 2011. Formulating a new basis for the treatment against botulinum neurotoxin intoxication: 3,4-Diaminopyridine prodrug design and characterization Bioorg. Med. Chem. 9(21):6203-9.

Related:
Craig Murray:Yulia Skripal Is Plainly Under Duress
Moon of Alabama: Yulia Skripal released from Hospital: held in UK police custody.

Are the Skripals in Mortal Danger From the British State?

British Prime Minister, Theresa May, claims that the Russian spy turned British double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, were the victims of an attempted nerve-agent assassination conducted on British soil on the direct orders of President Putin.

However, the evidence presented by the British state to substantiate its extraordinary allegation is, as we discussed, here, (and here, and here) essentially non-existent. Rather it appears from the circumstances that the incident was staged by the British state to stoke Russophobia. That would explain the timing, in advance of this week's almost certainly fake chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria by, so Western media assert without evidence or question, Russia's ally, the Government of Syria.

Consistent with that inference is that the two incidents have been acclaimed with joy by warmongers in both London and Washington, DC as justification for NATO intervention in support of ISIS head-choppers in Syria against the Russian-backed Syrian Government.

Who then constitutes the greatest threat to the well-being of the Skripals? Is it the British state that apparently mounted either a fake or a failed nerve agent attack on them, an attack it then vociferously blamed on the Russians? Or is it the Russians who pardoned Sergei Skripal and released him from gaol years ago?

As long as one or both of the Skripals lives, whether under their own name or another, they represent a risk to the government of British Prime Minister, Theresa May, since they might reveal what actually happened in Salisbury when they were, according to the unsubstantiated claim of the British Government, exposed to the deadliest known nerve agent on the direct orders of President Putin.

In that context, the British Government, with assistance from the CIA is offering the Skripals the opportunity to depart the scene for new lives in the US or elsewhere under new identities.

For the Skripals, the opportunity can hardly be appealing. Not only must they sever all ties with family and friends in Russia and elsewhere, but the offer entails obvious personal risk.

Having induced them to depart the scene in name, why would the British state or their friends in America, not have them depart the scene in body and spirit also. Their identities already erased, supposedly for their own good, who would know, or even think to ask, whether they had also been silenced permanently by the hand of a British or American state assassin?

To the Russians, however, the Skripals are more valuable alive than dead as witnesses to a British operation designed to stoke Western Russophobia as a prelude to war. That they are of potential value to the Russians, is of course, the reason why the appear to be at great risk as long as they remain in the hands of the British state.

Related: 

MofA: Trump Asks Russia To Roll Over - It Won't
Craig Murray: Yulia Skripal Is Plainly Under Duress
Peter Ford, Former UK Ambassador to Syria: At the Edge of Armageddon:
RT: Russia accuses US of plan to destroy evidence of fake chemical weapons attack in Syria
Stephen Lendman: The Nerve Agent Saga: Are the Skripals Being Held Against Their Will in Britain?

By Finian Cunningham: Skripal Poison Case Becoming British Hostage Scenario

NoviJoke: To Russia With Hate

Former British Ambassador, Craig Murray, has made a compelling case that Boris Johnson, Britain's Foreign Secretary, lied in claiming that the poisoning of Russian traitor Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England, was with a nerve agent, Novichok, "made in Russia."

Johnson's additional claim that the attack was ordered, personally, by Russian President Putin is almost certainly, therefore, as baseless. That such "mad and horrible" allegations against Russia, as they have been described by Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, are being made by the British Government suggests the existence of a propaganda campaign in preparation for war. For that reason, the Skripal poisoning story deserves close public examination.

UK Backs off Russia Guilty of Nerve Agent Poisoning

Metro, April 4, 2018: The Foreign Office has deleted a tweet blaming Russia for the Salisbury attack after UK scientists announced they had not verified the source of the nerve agent used. The Government had posted a message online that stated the Kremlin was responsible. It said: ‘Analysis by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down made clear that this was a military-grade Novichok nerve agent produced in Russia.’ But yesterday Gary Aitkenhead, from the Government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, said the role of his lab was not to work out where the agent came from. He added the Government’s conclusion that it was highly likely to be Russian was based on ‘a number of other sources.’ The Foreign Office confirmed it had taken the tweet down because it had been an inaccurate summary of comments made by the UK’s ambassador to Russia.

Read more

Independent, April 4, 2018:

The inability of Porton Down to ascribe blame to Russia means that intelligence is now the key factor in the accusation against the Kremlin. And such overwhelming dependence on intelligence, most of it unknown to the public, has inevitably led to comparison with the fake intelligence which was used to justify the Iraq invasion.

It is also perhaps inevitable that Mr Johnson would be in the centre of the controversy. In an interview two weeks ago he had stated that Porton Down scientists were “absolutely categorical” that the novichok came from Russia: “I asked the guy myself, I said ‘are you sure?’ And he said ‘there’s no doubt’.”


But “the guy”, Gary Aitkenhead, the chief executive of the DSTL (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) at Porton Down, was pretty clear that although the scientists had ascertained the agent was novichok, “we haven’t identified the precise source”.

The foreign secretary’s aides are insisting that he was misunderstood and his words have been taken out of context. But at the same time, the Russian embassy gleefully pointed out, the Foreign Office deleted a tweet from last month saying that Porton Down had established that the novichok used in the attack definitely came from Russia

Read more

It's Not The Crime, It's The Cover-Up:

Moon of Alabama, April 4, 2018: When a scandal breaks, the discovery of an attempt to cover up is often regarded as even more reprehensible than the original deeds.

The British government is trying to cover-up the lies it made with its false allegations against Russia. The cover-up necessitates new lies some of which we expose below.

Yesterday the head of the British chemical weapon laboratory in Porton Down stated that the laboratory can not establish that the poison used in the alleged 'Novichok' attack in Salisbury was produced by Russia. This was a severe blow to the British government allegations of Russian involvement in the poisoning of Sergej and Yulia Skripal.

Now the British government tries to hide that it said that the poison used in the Salisbury was 'produced in Russia' and that Porton down had proved that to be the case. The government aligned media are helping to stuff the government lies down the memory hole.

We all need to make sure that the new lies get exposed and that the attempts to change the record fail.

Yesterday the British Foreign Office deleted this from its Twitter account:

The March 22 tweet was part of a now interrupted thread which summarized a briefing on the UK government's response to the Salisbury incident given by the British Ambassador to Russia, Dr Laurie Bristow, to the international diplomatic community in Moscow.

After the silent scrubbing of the record was publicly questioned the Foreign Office admittedthat it deleted the tweet:

After it emerged on Wednesday that the tweet had been deleted, the Foreign Office said the post was removed because it "did not accurately report" the words of Laurie Bristow, the UK's ambassador to Russia, which the tweet was supposed to be quoting.

Hmm - fool me once ...

Read more

Salisbury Terror Nerve Gas Attack: How We Know Putin Did It

Theresa May, House of Commons, March 12, 2017:

Re: The poisoning of Segei and Yulia Skirpal in Salisbury, England
Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down; our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so; Russia's record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations*; and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations; the Government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

Mr. Speaker, there are therefore only two plausible explanations for what happened in Salisbury on the 4th of March.

Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country.

Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.

So folks, no actual evidence, but still it's best just to place your trust in the politicians who in your hearts you know do what’s absolutely best for you, like, for example, bringing on the next ME war, with potential for escalation to World War III.

The fact that the incident in Salisbury occurred days before the Russian Presidential election has of course nothing to do with it.

The fact that the incident in Salisbury occurred just a couple of months before Russia is to host the World cup has of course nothing to do with it.

The fact that the incident in Salisbury occurred in the months leading up to completion of the NordStream II gas line to deliver Russian natural gas to North Western Europe, a project that US interests still seek to block to the benefit of US exporters of liquefied natural gas, a surplus byproduct of oil fracking, has of course nothing to do with it.

The fact that Trump is gunning for a war on a Russia-backed Iran for which the incident in Salisbury may yet provide a pretext, is not to be thought of.

The fact that Putin has no reason to seek a war for which the incident in Salisbury could so readily serve as a pretext, at a time when Russia and China are still racing to surpass the US in arms both quantitatively and qualitatively, is of course irrelevant.

No, clearly, Putin decided that since now was the worst possible time to murder a Russian spy — a man already pardoned by the Russian state — using a terror weapon with Russia’s signature on it, on foreign soil, then this was, in fact, the best time since no one would believe the Russians to be that damn stupid. Trouble for Putin is that everyone is so damn stupid that they really do think the Russians are that damn stupid.

* May defends use of drones to kill British terrorists overseas

* Tracking US drone strikes and other covert actions in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia

Related:

The Star: Canada’s Russia policy raises many questions (such as why expel diplomats in the complete absence of evidence of wrongdoing? Because it's all bollocks, that's why.)