Late in the night on July 4, the police of the British county of Wiltshire reported that two people, who were hospitalized in grave condition in the Amesbury, were poisoned by combat neuro-paralytic substance such as the “Novichok”. Yes, the same poison, which was used in poisoning of the former intelligence officer of the Russian GRU Sergey Skripal and his daughter Julia. It is noteworthy that the town Amesbury is located near Salisbury where Scripal were poisoned.

While counterterrorism department of the Scotland Yard is collecting evidence, the Kremlin is actively spreading fakes about the involvement of British intelligence agencies in poisoning of Skripal and married couple in Amesbury. One gets the impression that Moscow was initially prepared for this turn of events, and it purposefully conducted another operation in the town bordering Salisbury. What for? There are several obvious and a couple of hidden reasons. However, one thing is obvious: the current situation will cause many Britons to doubt the sincerity of their authorities, and the investigation of the poisoning of the Skripal could be turn into a real farce.

And now let’s ask ourselves: who want to get the benefits from this case? We think that the answer is obvious – the Russian Federation. Now, the Russians are actively manipulating information provided by the deputy head of the British Interior Ministry, Ben Wallace. He reported (referring to the Guardian): “The working version is that these people were the victims of either the previous attack, or something else, but they were not targets. This version can change”.  But Russian media such as RIA-Novosti and Zvezda released a victorious report: “Russia is not involved in poisoning in Amesbury – the UK Ministry of Internal Affairs.”

Have you seen the manipulation? And now let’s talk on the merits.

Options of answers

So, what do we know? On June 30, 45-year-old Charlie Rowley and 44-year-old Don Sturgess were hospitalized from their home. Initially, doctors assumed that the victims took a dose of a strong drug – heroin or cocaine. However, in the following, it turned out after careful investigation: the couple was poisoned by the same agent of the “Novichok” type.

And now let’s look at how they were hospitalized. First, on Saturday morning, an ambulance was summoned to the house on Muggleton Road in Amesbury; reason – a breakdown in health of Sturgess. Later, on the same day, the doctors were summoned for Rowley.

All this is very similar to the situation that occurred on August 1, 1995. Then in Moscow, the head of Rosbusinessbank, Ivan Kivelidi, was killed with the help of an identical combat poison.

When he fainted, everyone thought that it was connected to his kidney disease, but after his hospitalization, his secretary died, and later a pathologist who opened the body of the deceased.

The situation was extremely banal: the secretary answered a phone call and handed the phone to Kivelidi. As you already guessed, the “Novichok” was struck on the phone.

Why do we tell about this? The fact is that Don Sturgess was poisoned probably first. Then the man suffered because he had direct contact with the victim. It looks exactly how it happened with the secretary Kivelidi and the pathologist.

Now let’s look at the options how they could be poisoned. Local police have concluded so far that the pair was not the object of poisoning, that they came into contact with the “Novichok” accidentally. Maybe, they are correct. However, according to a friend of the victims, Sam Hobson, they spent a day in Salisbury on Friday – where Skripal were poisoned.

In other words, everything supposedly indicates that the British are being poisoned in the same place – not far from the military-chemical laboratory Porton Down. Recall that during the scandal with the poisoning of the Skripal, the Russians actively promoted the fake: the British special services and scientists poisoned former Colonel GRU and his daughter, and they constantly put such experiments on people.

The problem is that the affected married couple could not be exposed to the substance in Salisbury in the areas of damage that were identified by British investigators and experts. Why? As the British Daily Mail notes, immediately after the attack on the Skripal in Salisbury, nine local zones were completely isolated, and complete disinfection was carried out there. Only four places were completely cleared, and the access to another five is still closed.

Now, these places are surrounded by high fences, and they are guarded by police and private companies. It means that the victims could not enter to restricted areas. And, as British experts have correctly informed, “Novichok” is a highly toxic substance and disintegrates rather slowly, and it is a reason why the five zones are still being cleaned.

It could not be stolen from a laboratory in Porton Down. As the developer of the combat agent Vil Mirzayanov pointed out in the commentary to BBC, it could not be stolen from a place where it had never been produced. Moreover, the person who supposedly used it against a married couple should have known how to protect himself from interaction with the “Novichok”.

And here the main question arises: where victims were poisoned – in Salisbury or in Amesbury?

The thing is that since the 1970s, after the war with the terrorists from the IRA, the British special services have been engaged in improving security systems. Now, London and other major cities in the UK are covered by a network of police video surveillance. In other words, it is extremely difficult to hide from the eyes of British counterintelligence for any killer. In order to destroy victim in London or in Birmingham, the contractor must send to victims the person which knows them. That’s why the current deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Lugovoi, was involved in the murder of Litvinenko, because he knew the victim. Skripal were probably also poisoned by an old friend. The same could happen to the affected married couple: someone entered into a confidential contact with them.

Why Salisbury and Skripal were chosen, because there is not that large-scale network of video surveillance. However, after the assassination, it probably appeared there, because the special services tried to find the killer. The enemy special services will never carry out the same incident in the same place. There are high risks of failure and disclosure of the operation, but such a network does not exist in Amesbury.

That gives the impression that in this time the attack was conducted in the first zone of poisoning – in the Salisbury. It looks like someone was needed to create an atmosphere of suspicion and fear; to show that in fact there is no Russian “Novichok” and the British special services and scientists conduct experiments on their fellow citizens. And as a result, Russia is not involved in the poisoning of the Skripal.

Why the Kremlin attacks

We have already written about the misinterpretation of the statement of the deputy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Great Britain Ben Wallace by Russian media. In fact, he accused once again Russia of poisoning Skripal and creating a combat substance “Novichok”, indicating that the working version of the accidental interaction of a married couple with this agent could be changed during the investigation.

It is clear that amid of the above mentioned information, such an interpretation looks extremely strange or not prepared.

The statements of Russian propagandists look also like this, which were sounded right after the poisoning of married couple in Amesbury. You can look at the Twitter posts of the editor-in-chief of the Russian news agency Margarita Simonyan and the dean of the Higher School of Television of Moscow State University Vitaly Tretyakov, after which everything immediately becomes clear. They informed that the “Novichok” was developed by the British, and Russia did not take part in the poisoning of Skripal.

Speaker of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, asked a sarcastic question: “Where is Teresa May?”, hinting that the British prime minister allegedly without a proper evidence base accused Russia in poisoning of the former Russian spy and his daughter. Zakharova’s idea is clear: the Russians did not poison Skripal, it was done by the intelligence services of Great Britain, that it proves in the case in Amesbury.

It seems that the Russians were ready for the current situation and prepared information attacks in advance.

Let’s ask a simple question: why should the Kremlin poison ordinary British people? There are obvious answers: Kremlin wants to turn the investigation into the case of Skripal into a single farce, showing to the Britons and the world community that the government of London is deceiving them. Even if, British investigators will accuse Russia in attack on the territory of the UK after this case, many  people will not believe them.

However, there are much more important circumstances.

Firstly, in April of this year, the experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), having tested in four different laboratories, agreed with the findings of British experts and confirmed the nature of the toxin in a short version of the report.

Russia (a member of the OPCW) also received a classified part of the report. British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said about this: “Now there is no doubt about what substance (” Novichok “) was used. There are no more alternative versions as to who is responsible – only Russia had a motive, way and history [of similar actions]”.

Further, on July 3, The Sun, referring to sources in Scotland Yard, reported that two Russians involved in the poisoning of the Skripal are hiding in Russia.

“The ultimate goal is always to be brought them to justice. Of course, if they are not in the UK, it makes the task much more difficult”, – the newspaper quotes an unnamed source.

Now it became known that the British special services notified the authorities of Great Britain and the allied states that the Russian security services followed Sergei and Julia Skripal for several months – even before the attempt was committed.

According to above mentioned information, you can conclude that the current poisoning of a married couple calls into question the indisputable facts obtained by British detectives in the course of an investigation into a Russian chemical attack.

However, this is not all. The British crime control agency is investigating now the financial support for the British exit campaign from the EU – Brexit – Arron Banks and his contacts with Russian officials. It was reported by CNN referring to own sources.

Access to the electronic correspondence of the multimillionaire, co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign was obtained. The correspondence talks about previously unknown meetings between the businessman and the Russian ambassador in London.

According to these data, Banks received three business offers in the period before the vote for Britain’s withdrawal from the EU (Brexit), including investments in gold mines in the west of Africa and a stake in the Russian organization Alrosa.

But that’s not all. Trump and Putin will meet in Helsinki on July 16th. There, the presidents will talk about Russian interference in the American elections, about Syria, Ukraine. Also, probably, they will discuss other topics.

It is clear that Trump will get on the side of the opinion of British premier, Teresa May, who actively opposes Russian aggression in all directions. And now look how this situation, which happened in the town of Amesbury, will play into Putin’s hands. He will show once again to Trump that Russia has nothing to do with it.

Now, answer the question: Do you really believe that the poisoning of a British couple in Amesbury was an accident and Russian special services are not involved in this? I think that the answer is obvious: that is the Kremlin’s work.

And it means that the active new phase of the Russian aggressive campaign to undermine the unity of the West has begun.

IR