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UK poisoning claims aimed at influencing Russia presidential vote: Analyst

Thursday, 15 March 2018 8:29 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 15 March 2018 8:32 AM ]

British police officers stand on duty at a cordon leading to a residential housing estate as Military personnel in wearing protective coveralls work to remove a vehicle connected to the March 4 nerve agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham, southeast England on March 14, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

An analyst believes the row over Moscow's alleged involvement in the poisoning of a former spy in Britain is a “manufactured crisis” in order to discredit President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the presidential elections in Russia.

“So the timing of it is very curious and it amounts to an indirect meddling in Russian internal affairs to influence the outcome of the Russian presidential elections,” Kaveh Afrasiabi told Press TV in an interview on Thursday.

“As far as I can gather by poring over the reports on this matter, it has all the markings of a new Cold War and I am sure that future historians will look at it in terms of a Western sinister tactic against the Russian nemesis at the time that Russia has gained the upper hand in the conflict in Syria and this is part of a rollback strategy,” he added.

PressTV-Russia asks for proof over US, UK poisoning claims

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations calls for proof to be presented over Moscow's alleged involvement in the poisoning of a former spy in Britain.

On March 7, British authorities announced that former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, had been hospitalized since they had been found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the city of Salisbury. They were reportedly exposed to a nerve agent.

Skripal was found guilty by a Russian tribunal of selling classified information to Britain's spy agency MI6 and was imprisoned in Russia in 2006. He was exchanged in a spy swap in 2010.

British media and politicians speculated that Russia might be behind the incident. Moscow has strongly denied the allegations and expressed its readiness to help with the investigation.

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