Alwaght- Russia's UN Security Council representative Vasily Nebenzya vehemently denied British allegations that his country perpetrated a nerve agent attack on UK soil.
Nebenzya stated that, following the letter and the 24-hour ultimatum from British Prime Minister Theresa May, Russia had called for an open, not closed, meeting of the Security Council, in the interests of transparency. “We wanted to make sure everyone sees what’s happening here,” Nebenzya said.
He went on to decry the “completely irresponsible statements” and “threats against a permanent member of the UNSC” made by British politicians calling the international community to look beyond “highly likely” type of proof, while reaffirming that Russia “had nothing to do with this incident.”
Nebenzya questioned why the case was being “dragged” before the Council, ignoring procedure. He alleged that the real reason the British government broke protocol was that it feared that “real experts” in The Hague would not be convinced by the evidence.
“We asked for samples of the substance used to assist in a joint investigation. This request was ignored,” he said. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is located in The Hague.
“Is this something that benefits Russia on the eve of Russian elections and the World Cup? Abiding on presumption of innocence, I can think of a great number of countries that would benefit from such accusations,” Nebenzya said, declining to name them on the UNSC floor, however. He described Skripal as “pardoned” and “no longer a threat to Russia,” while simultaneously being “the perfect victim who could justify any unthinkable lie, any kind of untruth tarnishing Russia.”
“Let me repeat. Russia had nothing to do with this incident. The British ultimatum isn't worthy of our attention and is null and void,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Russian senator says the West has launched a large-scale campaign to remove his country from the UN Security Council. Citing the Skripal case, Senator Sergey Kalashnikov said, “The West has launched a massive operation in order to kick Russia out of the UN Security Council,” Kalashnikov said.
“Russia is now a very inconvenient player for the Western nations and this explains all the recent attacks on our country.”
The Senator believes that in order to curb Russia’s membership there is going to be an attempt to reform the principal UN body tasked with the maintenance of international peace and security.
