Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom said Saturday it considered statements by UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field about "Russian state aggression" to be irresponsible.
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2018) Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom said Saturday it considered statements by UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field about "Russian state aggression" to be irresponsible.
On Friday, Field said during a visit to the Philippines that many countries had fallen victims to "Russian state aggression, destabilisation or interference" in recent years, accusing Moscow of being behind the chemical attack against a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK town of Salisbury in March.
"We have taken note of the speech by Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Mark Field in the Philippines during his tour of Southeast Asia. The Minister has irresponsibly stated, inter alia, that 'in recent years many countries have fallen victim to Russian state aggression'. These accusations are absolutely misleading. As we have emphasized over and over again at various levels, Russia does not threaten anyone," the embassy's spokesman said.
In recent years, the United Kingdom itself, jointly with the United States, unleashed aggression in Iraq, destroyed the statehood in Libya, and in April this year, it committed an act of aggression against Syria by inflicting missile strikes on its territory, he noted.
"Moreover, London continues to increase dramatically its military expenditure in order to, as State Secretary for Defence Gavin Williamson has stated recently, 'be ready to fight in Mainland Europe, in the middle or in the Far East,'" the spokesman added.
He described the deployment of UK military contingent near Russian borders, on the territory of Eastern European countries, as a vivid example of the aggressiveness of the current UK foreign policy line.
Commenting on Field's statement that "there is no alternative reasonable explanation" for the Salisbury incident than for Russia's actions, the embassy's representative urged the UK government not to substitute the results of an unsuccessful investigation with fabrications, even though six months have passed.
"The UK should respect international law, conduct a transparent investigation and stop manipulating CWC [Chemical Weapons Convention] rules and practices while blaming Russia without a shred of evidence," he concluded.
On March 4, the Skripals were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury. The United Kingdom and its allies have accused Moscow of having orchestrated the attack with what UK experts claim was the A234 nerve agent, albeit without presenting any proof.
