"There again, media immediately blamed the attacks on obvious targets of
US-UK war threats—the Iraqi regime’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program and its alleged ties to Al Qaeda. These all proved to be lies, serving Washington’s foreign policy interests as it sought to go to war
in Iraq."
But one important difference between Russia and Third-World countries like Irak and Afghanistan, is that Russia can respond in kind if the USA or its British satellite were foolish enough to make the slightest hostile move under whatever pretext, while those two Third-World countries could not!

Actually it is Vil Mirzayanov who states that only Russia could have carried out the attack with Novichok on Skripal. The UK has vast information on the 14 individuals killed in the UK. Their mistake was letting local police officials, with no background in these chemicals or the Russian intel services, run the investigations. Since these officials were not authorized to access the government's secret files, they did not receive the pertinent info that would have allowed to run better investigations. Result: call in the counterintel squad now, which does have access.

Why cry for spies?

I cannot believe how quickly supposed intelligent people are ready to convict without trial... as though launching war as a penalty will suit anyone in the long term. Ridiculous species...

The West learned a lot about Novichok when Vil Mirzayanov defected to the US. He has published widely about the Foliant Program, and it's likely he provided (perhaps unwittingly) enough information to allow his US hosts and their UK partners to produce such substances themselves. DO NOT assume just because it's Novichok that Russia committed these crimes. The US and the UK had the means, motive, and opportunity to do it all by themselves. DO NOT allow them to lie us into war again. There is FAR too much at stake.

More to the point, do not assume that just because the British government claims the Skripals were poisoned with "Novichok" that it even exists. It was a late Soviet project to develop new safer binary chemical weapons, and the USSR disintegrated before it was actually developed. There is no evidence that Russia ever pursued the project, particularly since they signed on to the Chemical Weapons Convention when it came into effect and destroyed all their chemical weapons and production facilities under international OPCW inspection and verification. That included US, British, French, and German inspectors.

HOWEVER, although Britain, France, and the US are also signatories, they continue to product and stockpile many types of chemical weapons, and this odd "incident' just happened to occur next door to Britain's Porton Down chemical weapon production facility, the largest in Western Europe, which specializes in producing nerve gas! Curious, eh?

Vil Mirrrzayanov actually wrote a book on this subject and also gave the recipes to manfacture this alleged product. Thus any competent Western laboratory could manufacture it, IF there even is such a thing. It appears in 2016 a leading chemist at Porton Down had doubts that such chemicals exist.
Further, As recently as 2016 Dr Robin Black, Head of the Detection Laboratory at the UK’s only chemical weapons facility at Porton Down, a former colleague of Dr David Kelly, published in an extremely prestigious scientific journal that the evidence for the existence of Novichoks was scant and their composition unknown.
The Scientific Advisory Board of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has not recognized Novichoks as chemical weapons because it found scant evidence that they exist at all. The U.S. and the UK are both part of the organization and both agreed with this evaluation:
To now turn around and claim someone was attempted to be assassinated using this product that the British Government themselves, believes did not exist, is a bit rich. No wonder we wont be seeing the alleged evidence to sustain their allegation.

Dr. Black had better watch his back.

Russia is simply not credible when it comes to denying their poisonings of former Russian citizens and agents abroad. Time after time it's Russian ex-patriots who are murdered, and always with nerve gas variants. It's way too easy to draw the line straight back to the Kremlin based on methodology and who the victims are. Only the North Koreans operate similarly, and never in Europe.

This isn`t the case at all. Nato, MSM do not need to provide evidence or knowledge, (Iraq WMD, Libya, Iran 1953 etc.etc.) when it comes to updating the "liberal" program for the masses. All convenient and expedient, no?

They are not credible to me either. It looks like standard "murder with signature", widely practiced by Mob and similar criminal organizations; its purpose is to show what will happen to traitors and to discourage others from taking that path. In the same time, the crime is deniable - it cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt that Russians did it. Even those who want to believe to British government cannot claim it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that Russians did it.

"False flag" wouldn't be done that way. It would not target Putin's traitors; because effect is the same - it discourages such betrayals. Target would include some completely apolitical, innocent Brits; there would be planted evidence which allow those *who want to believe* to British gov. that they have proof beyond reasonable doubt.

So, yes, it is probable that Russians did it - although of course, I cannot claim it beyond reasonable doubt.

Yeah right, according to you, Russia kills it's dissidents with poisons. Please explain to us all then how Hugo Chavez died from radiation poisoning, when Venezuela does not have any nuclear power stations or weapons. From where did the radiation material that killed him come from ? Further to this, he's not the only statesman to die from such an affliction, the Palestinian leader also succumbed from similar maladies. Now the clincher is, who or which nations stood to gain by these criminal assassination actions. One things for sure, it wasn't the Russians. Oh, B.T.W remember Dr Kelly, the British scientist working on such matters who let the cat out of the bag, there were no chemical weapons in Iraq, who allegedly suicided by swallowing Aspro's ? Yet the inquest could not sustain the claim he suicided. So, just how then did he die. Notice too, he once worked at Porton Downs and died not too far from it either.
I'm amazed they didn't try to blame that on the Russians then either.

I think you made your own counter-argument.

Simply screwing with Russian elections, not trying to win those election with corporate stooges but tainting the outcomes with screams of authoritarianism and faked elections. More to come and it will get worse.
Likely best choice for Russia, block all trade with the UK for one year, all trade including economic trade.
It needs to be something of real consequence else they will not listen.

The Imperialists have a deep and bitter hatred of the revolutionary working class. The Russian revolution hasn't gone away as far as Imperialism is concerned. The Stalinist counter-revolution may have eventually opened the door in the Soviet Union for the re-introduction of capitalism; but the turn of history is bringing the whole world back to where the 1917 Russian revolution left off. Confusion is caused because the capitalist system in Russia cannot call out the Imperialists for what they are. They cannot rally the world's workers to bring down capitalism forever.
Just as workers must break from unions and build rank-and-file committees if they are to defend themselves against the capitalist employer and state, so they must also break from notions that there are any political alternatives to the Imperialists and their drive for war. The only option for the working class is to seize the ground by building the revolutionary socialist party - there are no ready-made options provided by world capitalism. It is all bankrupt.

The list of US/UK/NATO sponsored false flag attacks is long (WMD, sarin gas, etc etc). This is just another paper thin plot to smear an enemy state so that more aggressive measures can be justified. Of course it's obvious from the timing, the UK gov/media response and the total the lack of a Russian government motive, that this was a UK government sanctioned job. Undoubtedly the UK/UK war machine will have to move on Russia for the elimination of their chemical weapons stockpile, i.e., for "humanitarian" reasons. No need to mention that the US/UK produced most of the world's chemical weapons including nerve agents and stole the Japanese bio weapons and in vivo human experimentation results while pardoning the Japanese WW2 war criminals.

This article indicates profound ignorance of spy craft and its consequences for traitors. The fact that Skripal was exchanged for some captured Russian spies in no way means that he will not be eliminated for any number of reasons , by whoever has the contract, and as a warning to future traitors. Regarded from that point of view the fact that the assassination attempt is not regarded within that spy life routine but made into a casus belli indicates that the U.K. at least is still on an anti-Russian kick whereas Trumpi in this as so many other instances is unwilling to convict without real evidence.

No it is your comment that reveals your ignorance.
Ask yourself where is the proof. There is none. While Brits refused to provide sample since it would indicate who did manufacture it and hundreds of lab in the world including in UK have capability to produce them.

The poison May claimed coming from a book of Russian defector and his claims and suppose chemical formulas he published and have been rejected by British and UN authorities in 2010 as unsubstantiated and not describing chemical WMDs.

http://www.moonofalabama.or...

Neither you nor I are poison experts, and even if we were the matter is irrelevant to the fact that Skrypal was a walking dead man who now no longer walks., not for a while since he seems to have survived. The suggestion that the Brits murdered him to manufacture a Soviet British crisis is preposterous in light of all the NATO tuff going on. What is occurring now with the expulsion of Russian diplomats is the usual public theater. Lantier's piece also suffers from what i call "knee jerking over-imputation" of motives, unfortunately characteristic of quite a bit of work by my Marxist friends.

But didn't he defect years ago? Why poison him now, after he was debriefed by MI6 (or MI5 I can never keep them straight). Why poison his daughter, who is a Russian citizen living in Russia?

MI5 was the original spy outfit. MI6 was designed in the 30's to counter Communism and Workers Organisations in Britain,as it's speciality. They only recruited bona fide people from the many Fascist groupings abounding in Britain at the time.
James Joyce was Lord Haw Haw notoriety,he was born in New York of
Irish Orange parents who returned to Ireland young Joyce was marked for ellimination by the IRA.

He was welcomed into MI6,and set out for Germany on the last day before war declaration. The Gestapo was suspicious of him as a British plant,and he was kept out of Broadcasting for Hitler for sometime. He may have been a conduit for secret talks with the Nazi's and the British.

He was hanged illegally since he was a US citizen by birth. Dead men tell no tales like Hess, his wife was a Carlisle woman and should have been hanged as a traitor.

But I have no truck with that hideous barbarism. The US FBI is Catholic run. CIA I don't know!

Skripal was (and maybe continued to be) a double agent, collecting money from both sides. He was arrested, tried, and given a 13 year prison sentence in Russia. Quite a minor sentence as treason cases go. After 4 years he was pardoned and released by Russia, and exchanged for a number of Russian spies being held in the US and UK.

On arrival in the UK he was of course thoroughly debriefed by MI-6 and the CIA, and paid around a quarter of a million dollars by MI-6. He then retired to Salisbury which was curiously close to the Porton Down British chemical warfare production site, raising the possibility he may have continued to be a double agent.

His daughter continued to live in Moscow and apparently visited him almost monthly, so she could have been acting as a conduit if he was continuing to work for Russian Intelligence behind the scenes. Which raises the possibility that MI-6 became aware of it and killed them, blaming it on Russia (and Putin personally) to frame their death as "yet another Putin murder" while ensuring no questions would be asked about MI-6 or Porton Down involvement.

Killing two birds with one stone, as it were.

A Russian in Russia said you're crippled for life if you survive that stuff. But where are they,probably critically dead as you suppose?

The Russian ingesting Plutonium had full Hospital exposure. "Oh what tangled webs we weave when we practice to deceive"!

Plenty Coppers and Troops putting up tents. Wombles in Womble suits with special humpy ones for the litter!

Putin ex KGB might want to frighten other possible traitors. it then will turn out that it's just a former pal of Skripal's who finally tracked him down for being a traitor. This is all speculation - but why a minor case of this kind is blown up by the West into a casus belli of course makes one suspect that the west is looking for any old reason to further its anti-Russian propaganda. But would the Brits really resort to a botched poisoning to exacerbate the situation are they that hard up, that incompetent?

Yes.

Your rejection of Kalen's suggestion regarding the chemical formulas is out of order. As the FACTS state clearly otherwise. Check them out yourself here, note too that it was the U.S. and British EXPERTS themselves who threw the claim out.
The Scientific Advisory Board of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has not recognized Novichoks as chemical weapons because it found scant evidence that they exist at all. The U.S. and the UK are both part of the organization and both agreed with this evaluation:
[The SAB] emphasised that the definition of toxic chemicals in the Convention would cover all potential candidate chemicals that might be utilised as chemical weapons. Regarding new toxic chemicals not listed in the Annex on Chemicals but which may nevertheless pose a risk to the Convention, the SAB makes reference to “Novichoks”. The name “Novichok” is used in a publication of a former Soviet scientist who reported investigating a new class of nerve agents suitable for use as binary chemical weapons. The SAB states that it has insufficient information to comment on the existence or properties of “Novichoks”. (OPCW, 2013)
Enjoy.

It might be compressed Trump's Pumps!

"a publication of a former Soviet scientist who reported investigating a new class of nerve agents suitable for use as binary chemical weapons. The SAB states that it has insufficient information to comment on the existence or properties of “Novichoks”. (OPCW, " is the only reply suitable to refute your own argument. - for all we know it was someone beside Putin who had good reason to eliminate a traitor - but speculating about poisons isn't going to get us speculators anywhere.

Any suggestion of culpability of Russia is preposterous within days of incident, and especially preposterous is suggesting that anybody, anybody at all, being responsible for it at this stage by UK PM when British police officially stated that it needed weeks or months to figure out what happened.

At this point it is preposterous to accuse government of another country of deliberate attack on UK, that itself produced chemical weapons in the past and posses labs capable to produce them few miles from the site of incident with no shred of evidence, nothing at all, presented and threatening not only diplomatic response but wide ranging response including NATO response. And hence expulsion of Russian diplomats using this motive is preposterous based on this incidents,AI,ed to suggesting gilt of murder with no evidence at all, none. May may expel as many Russian adiplomats as she wants but connecting them to murder at this stage of investigation is preposterous .

May hysteria destoyed last shred of credibility she had left being rebuked by EU, Labour and even her own party and U.K. population. A typical and repugnant diversion from her political demise by warmongering and threatening confrontation with nuclear state with no shred of evidence.

It is criminal regardless of truth in that matter, the truth she does not want to uncover by refusing to follow Chemical WMD treaty and show samples gathered in this incident.

Not preposterous is definitely pointing out absurdity of preposterous baseless claims of U.K.

The smartest and the best joined the KGB, it was one way to get posted aboard! if anyone has an interest in silencing potential traitors it would be Putin, especially now that Russia is suspected of conducting cyber warfare

Suspected of doing the exact same things the United States does, in fact?

d'accord. Russian support of Assad must be rankling Uncle Sam and the Neo-Cons. So it might be a false flag but the lousiest kind!

Count on it being a False Flag, and one of many; each building on the preceding to feed into a "proof by multiple allegation" wherein none of the allegations are actually proven, but the sequence of allegations is pointed to as "proof".

"Tell a lie often enough and long enough it becomes the TRUTH"! Lenin I believe.

More likely Goebbels. But whoever originally said it, it is correct. Most people will start to believe it simply because "everybody knows that", having heard it repeated a hundred or a thousand times over several years.

Usually as in the current case the lie starts with some qualifier (alleged whatever), but soon the qualifier is dropped as though it had now been proven when in fact it hasn't.

Seems the case was closed before a crime was committed. The Brits: A dead empire hanging on to a dying empire. Both desperate. That is the danger to the world. At this point, it is a false flag to sucker the European NATO players into a suicide pact. Merkel will fall in line now that she has gotten by her election .... ?

True indeed. Thank you.

I wouldn't be surprised if Putin gets blamed for Stephen Hawking's death too.

What about Kennedy's assassination? Oh, I forgot, Corbyn did that.

Not forgetting Ken Dodd. May's rozzers with their doddymen suits, putting up tents and chasing them in the wind. Britain is pathetic. Since all satire and comedy has been banned. All we have left to laugh at are Trumpy Pumpy, and yet another breakthrough for feminism with a female torturer,running the secret police.
Wonder why Scaramucchi was sacked as Trumpy's Public Relations man? He was kinda cute!Had a way with words!!
Russia and China can rest sweetly with the Circus Canaille running the Honky, Capie states. Terrifying Tory Theresa I think not! Macron on 5% public support. Angela Merkel flying through the air amazing one and all as a trapeze artist.
Spain's Democracy in Catalonia a model for the world!

Give them time.

And Ken Dodd's...

"what is the basis of the allegations that it was Moscow that poisoned Skripal and his daughter, who are now very ill?"

Ruling class mob justice.

Why are the get well cards and worried looking Doctors and Theresa and her big bunch of flowers not on the Telly? With National day's of prayers from Westminster Abbey. And the threat that Bwitish Woyalty might not go to Wussia to watch the footie!
Serious stuff to make Wussia quake!

Five minutes or less of CNN at work and I can feel my brain starting to disintegrate. Dangerous.

Rest sweetly good lady. I'm retired and watch
the World News with my Netbox. Over a year I have watched,Al Jazeera, Japan News, Deutsche Welle,French News,drop into Spam idiocy. Even RT running a Program on Judo for African Grannies facing sex abuse?!
Mind you overage ladies makes a change from underage ladies and filmstars. Feminists will love it!! Plenty Sport though,good place to put men's brains and avoid base desires and politics!
Capitalist Realism perhaps!

One minute of CNN works better for me than two tablespoons of Oil of Ipecac.

That is why the Anglo Empire Oligarchy is so desperate to create excuses to block RT in the US and other Imperial countries. If people have an alternative media to fact check, the MSM narrative falls apart. The choir must all sing the same song with no dissenting voices.

While alternative media like WSWS, PCR, FARSnews, The Saker, Consortium News,and so forth exist, only a tiny handful of people read them. Mostly the already converted. RT and Sputnik reach a much larger international audience, hence the attempts to block them or make reading them a quasi-crime.

As for watching the MSM "news", keep a barf bag handy, Joe. You might not have time to run to the bathroom when Nikki Hailey, John Brennan, or James Clapper suddenly appears on the screen as a "credible expert source". Expert criminals they are; credible - not so much.

Please leave Niki Hailey alone. At least she believes in that sweet infant the baby Jesus and Trumpy Pumpy returning in 2,020 after dealing with Russians and Chinese Unbelievers and the US Schoolteachers steeped in greed and sin.

Kinda miss raw meat eating Samantha Power with lightening coming out her eyes with her Laser voice,staring round the podium for her next victim,licking her chops!

World peace is what the UN is all about. War on Drugs War on Opioids. War on Arab Children. No child left behind! More Billions for the geriatric Bourgeoisie.

I believe Mohammedans reserve the seventh and worst pit of Hell for Hypocrites!!