Lithuanian, Bulgarian, German officials: UK has presented no proof of Russian involvement in Skripal poisoning

Sputnik
Wed, 04 Apr 2018 17:06 UTC

© AFP 2018/ Petras Malukas

Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has called on the British government to furnish cogent evidence of Russia's involvement in the nerve agent attack on former Russian intelligent officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, saying the current assessment is not convincing.

In an interview with Lithuanian radio station Ziniu Radijas, the prime minister said that Russia's involvement in the Skripal poisoning case hasn't been proven with 100 percent certainty and he urged the UK to finally provide concrete evidence.

"I think that both the UK and international experts should give us a clear answer and draw a line under the case because right now it is highly likely that Russia had its hands in the case - but a possibility is not a 100 percent proof of the fact," Skvernelis said Thursday.

"I hope that experts investigating this will be able to provide concrete evidence," the Lithuanian leader concluded.

Comment: When even the Baltics question your anti-Russian 'evidence', you know it's bad.

Bulgaria's president, Rumen Radev, also spoke out, saying there must be "clear and irrefutable" evidence before Bulgaria is to expel any Russian diplomats.

"Let's not forget that Bulgaria is currently President of the Council of the European Union and as such, it must conduct a policy of dialogue and balance", said Radev, preaching caution and 'transparency' in the investigation.

And the German government's coordinator for Russia, Gernot Erler:

The UK has yet to prove that Russia is culpable in the Skripal poisoning case, and recent revelations contradicting the claim have "raised the pressure" on London, a German government representative said. ... London needed to cough up evidence of Moscow's guilt after the UK's Porton Down military research center said on Tuesday that it could not verify that the nerve agent used in the attack came from Russia.

"That contradicts what we had previously heard from British politicians and will certainly raise the pressure on Britain to show further proof that the traces plausibly point to Moscow," Erler told German broadcaster ARD.
...
Erler added that the contradictory statements coming from London now called into question the reliability of other claims made by Prime Minister Theresa May and her government. Citing classified intelligence reports, the UK government has suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have ordered the nerve agent attack that targeted ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury on March 4.

"These (reports) are not known publicly and now there is pressure for more of this information to be made known, otherwise the whole thing is not transparent," he said.

Asked by ARD who is responsible for the attack, Erler stated simply: "We don't know."

Erler is the second German official this week to publicly rebuke the UK for its handling of the case. On Tuesday, Armin Laschet, the leader of North Rhine-Westphalia and a deputy chairman of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), tweeted: "If you force almost all NATO countries to show solidarity, shouldn't you have sound evidence? You can think of Russia what you want, but I have learned a different way of dealing with states from studying international law."