Russia says Britain is playing with fire in spy case

[Julian Englis]

Source: AP

The international furor over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter intensified, with Russia warning Britain that it was “playing with fire.”

At a U.N. Security Council meeting on Thursday, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia claimed that Russia was the victim of a hasty, sloppy and ill-intentioned defamation campaign by London and its allies.

Britain has blamed Russia for the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter. In response, more than two dozen Western allies including Britain, the U.S. and NATO have ordered out over 150 Russian diplomats in a show of solidarity. Moscow has fiercely denied its involvement in the nerve agent attack and expelled an equal number of envoys. The diplomatic turmoil has hit lows unseen even at the height of the Cold War.

Moscow assumes “with a high degree of probability” that the intelligence services of other countries are likely responsible for the incident, Nebenzia said at the U.N.

Read more: https://www.apnews.com/60352ef3ed8d454ea8df503af426f521

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Fire seems a lot safer than nerve gas.

[truthisfreedom]

1. It seems that my most common response lately is again

apropos... this will not end well.

[DetlefK]

2. Dear Russia: How did you arrive at that "high degree of probability?"

Which other country except Russia has any interest in a retired, exiled russian agent with outdated information?
And why would they kill him?

And now please weigh this against the probability that Russia ordered a hit-job on a traitor.

[TomVilmer]

4. Russia is just mocking the language from Western countries

Yes, Putin is in many ways acting like a Hollywood villain. But the Western countries has as little evidence for a connection to this attack, as Russia might have.

Wars are normally started on much less evidence, than it would take to frame a thief for stealing a bicycle. USA's wars are very good examples of this.

[DetlefK]

5. Breaking News: British intelligence has identified chemical factory in Shikhany, Russia, as the sour

see Times of London and Daily Beast

[TomVilmer]

6. That is no proof...

"Britain says it has identified the secretive Russian facility where it believes....".
And "the intelligence disproves claims the Novichok could have come from elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, such as Ukraine or Uzbekistan".

But: In 1999, the Pentagon informed Congress that it intends to spend up to $6 million under its Cooperative Threat Reduction program to demilitarize the so-called Chemical Research Institute, in Nukus, Uzbekistan. Soviet defectors and American officials say the Nukus plant was the major research and testing site for a new class of secret, highly lethal chemical weapons called ''Novichok''.

I do believe the world is full of mad people, but why use a poison which is very difficult to use, and points directly back to your own area - to kill such an inferior target, which then survives anyway?

I would like to see some real proof before we jump into WW3, please!

[DetlefK]

7. Sigh...

1. British intelligence says that the Novichok was made in Shikhany. And I can tell you that they won't divulge how they found that out. So, we are back at he-said-she-said.

2. The chemical weapons of the Novichok-family were designed specifically so they would be easy to synthesize in case of a war. Just because one lab was dismantled, that means nothing. As Russia liked to say: Anybody could have made that batch of Novichok. (Yes, even Russia.)

3. So far, the West has made no sign whatsoever that he's willing to go beyond diplomatic and economic measures.
Literally THE ONLY person who has brought up WWIII was a Kremlin-spokesman when he warned the UK not to fling unproven accusations at a nuclear power. If you are worried about WWIII, tell Russia to calm down a notch.

[TomVilmer]

8. And literally THE ONLY other person in the world...

... was ME? I can think all by myself with no help, and I am not alone. My friends in East and West are scared as well - but no governments are listening, and neither are all the scaremongers who are happily inflating this conflict.

British intelligence also told there were WMDs in Iraq, so there is no credibility left there. And their own laboratory is not willing to back that claim about Shikhany now - as you know.

Sigh... OK, you have totally convinced me. Let's get a beer together, and just accept all the lies.

[DetlefK]

10. Are you trying to pretend that Russia has credibility???

Has any politician anywhere in the world, except this one spokesperson, made any hint that this could escalate towards WWIII?



Russia has told us that the west has meddled in the elections where Putin was just reelected. Is the accusation explosive? Yes. Have they provided any proof? No.

Russia has told us that LGBT-people are not put into concentration-camps in Chechnya. Have they talked to witnesses? No.

Russia has told us that Sergej Magnitsky was the figurehead of a massive embezzlement of government-money. An embezzlement that HE brought to the attention of law-enforcement. Any comment from Russia on leaked messages where corrupt officials try to destroy archived evidence from the Magnitsky-case? No?

Russia has told us that russian troops are not operating in Ukraine. And then Russia declared the location of russian troops a state secret the very second Russians started asking whether russian troops are in Ukraine. Oh, and btw, if they indeed are in Ukraine, then they are there on "vacation" (Legion Condor, wink wink) and aerial images that show russian artillery firing across the broder into Ukraine are of course fake.

Those unmarked soldiers showing up in Crimea just as Yanukovych was overthrown? Those were just concerned citizens and nothing could be farther from the truth than to suspect that it was russian soldiers.

Trolls from the Internet Research Agency posing as US-citizens online and meddling in the election? Never heard of them.

RT and Sputnik manipulating the public with selective reporting and by treating conspiracy-theories as valid opinions? Well, they decide what to report!

Enemies of Putin dropping dead under mysterious circumstances? Could be coincidence!
Maybe he had a poisonous plant known to be used by chinese assassins as a salad! Who knows!
He jumped to death from a window but the window is too small to climb through? The only possible explanation is that he ran up to the window-opening and then jumped through it horizontally and head-first!



So, Yes, I do have a negative opinion about Russia. But maybe the dozen suspicious deaths, the government-sanctioned corruption, the brazen lies and the state-sponsored propaganda are to blame for that.

[TomVilmer]

11. Why are you trying to convince me...

... that Putin is bad. Everybody know that. Since I am against any war, you have decided that I must love a warlord like Putin? You really have to work more with the words before that seems like logic...

"Has any politician anywhere in the world, except this one spokesperson, made any hint that this could escalate towards WWIII?"
So I only need to find one? Google, google and - what about British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson?

[paleotn]

3. Maybe I'm just a child of the Cold War....

...but when do various Russian regimes NOT blatantly and ridiculously lie? It seems their modus operandi no matter who's in charge.

[forgotmylogin]

9. Stealth poisoned...with a nerve agent...with a Russian name...

Easiest game of CLUE ever.