Alwaght- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the West ignored international law and employed arm-twisting tactics against many countries in order to get them to expel Russian diplomats.
Russia’s top diplomat noted that the West was staging blatant political provocations in order to further demonize Russia.
"The Skripal case was a fictional and trumped-up pretext to unreasonably expel Russian diplomats, without producing any evidence, not only from the US and the UK but also from many other countries, who were arm-twisted into going along," the minister said at the Moscow Conference on International Security.
"We haven’t seen such a blatant disregard for international law and diplomatic integrity for a long time," Lavrov noted. "We will continue to respond adequately to such steps, but, by the same token, we want to get to the truth. We insist on a substantive and responsible investigation in full compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention."
He also stressed that Western countries would not be able to ignore the questions posed by Moscow based on that convention.
The incident involving the alleged poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and was later swapped for Russian intelligence officers.
Russia has denied any involvement in the alleged poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and was later swapped for Russian intelligence officers. The incident occurred on March 4 in the British city of Salisbury. The Skripals are being treated in a UK hospital.
The UK claims the nerve agent allegedly used in the poisoning was Novichok, which was developed in the former Soviet Union, basing its accusations against Moscow on that assertion.
More than 20 Western countries, including Britain and United States, have ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats over the Skripal saga.
Russia has reaffirmed its determination to retaliate against the expulsion of scores of its diplomats by Western countries but has stressed that the door to dialog “remains open.”
