"I want to stress that they are proceeding with speed and professionalism. We are putting in enormous resources to ensure that they have all the support that they need to do that," said Rudd, after chairing a meeting of Cobra, the UK's emergencies committee.So it looks like it's all going according to plan. After trial by media, Russia will be officially blamed again for something it likely had nothing to do with. How do you stand up to a clandestine and sinister group of Westerners who will stop at nothing to frame Russia as the big bad of the century? Not much.
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Following the incident, authorities managed to collect 240 pieces of evidence and have identified some 200 witnesses to the crime, Rudd said, noting that 250 officers are taking part in the investigation. The incident is getting so much attention that the government will be sending the Armed Forces to Salisbury in order to handle potentially dangerous evidence in the area of the initial poisoning.
The BBC reported on Saturday night that traces of a rare nerve agent, thought to be used in the poisoning, were found in a local branch of Zizzi, a chain restaurant, and one of the five locations at the center of the police investigation.
While Rudd insisted that the investigators "need to be given the space and time" so that they can be "absolutely clear" when assigning blame for the attack, British officials continue to insinuate that a foreign power - presumably Russia - was involved. Earlier, Foreign Affairs Minister, Boris Johnson vowed to respond "robustly" if evidence emerges of Russian involvement in the incident, seemingly disregarding that the former spy with a tainted reputation could have made enemies since settling in Britain in 2010.
"The key thing they need to be doing and they will be doing is to look at what Skripal has been doing in his life since he has moved to the UK. And I think this is where the motive for this attack is going to come from," former MI5 agent Annie Machon told RT. "Let's face it, in intelligence terms, he was a 'busted flush'" with no apparent interest to the Russians.
"It is usually the state level actors that have the capability of producing this sort of agent. However, in terms of who might have used it - that is a different question," Machon said. "To say that if it's a state made agent, it must be a state attack is, I think, disingenuous, at best. People can get their hands on this sort of thing. Gangsters and criminals can get their hands on this sort of thing if they've got the right money to pay for it."
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According to the Times, Prime Minister Theresa May is a step away from naming Russia as the chief suspect in the alleged attempted assassination.
Now, the paranoia in the UK in the Skripal case is reaching massive proportions, with a junior minister calling on London to contact its NATO allies over the incident. "Some big questions arise, as to how do you stand up to a clandestine and sinister attack deliberately done to play havoc in our society?" said UK Government Minister at the Ministry of Defence Tobias Ellwood, vouching a "robust response."
Comment: Taking Putin's remarks completely out of context in order to make him appear anti-semitic is very cheap on Newsweek's part. Happily, we have access to the full transcript of the interview, where we read: Obviously, Putin was desperately trying to get the point across to Megyn Kelly that the Russian 'trolls' were not part of the Russian government and in no way represent it, and that they were working on their own initiative or for third party interests. As an example, he mentioned Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews and even Americans. But he was clearly not trying to push forward a 'Jewish conspiracy theory' as Newsweek suggests. Nobody is taking Putin's comments to mean that he is anti-Ukrainian, anti-Tatar or anti-American. So why should we think they were anti-semitic?
Why did Putin choose these groups of people as examples? Simply because those are people who may have loyalties to other countries while holding a Russian nationality - and once again, this was said to stress the point that they did not represent the Russian government. In the case of the Jews, it is a fact that many around the world are loyal to Israel while holding a different nationality. Is it anti-semitic to make a passing reference to this fact?
It is surprising that something so obvious even requires an explanation, but that is the sad state of affairs when we encounter malicious mainstream media headlines and articles such as this one.