In retrospect, the entire media circus orchestrated by Britain now seems embarrassing for lack of credibility. Its allies have been made a laughing stock, played by the likes of Britain's clownish foreign minister Boris Johnson. The whole Skripal affair has the pungent whiff of a false-flag operation mounted by British state agents for the purpose of criminalizing Russia in the eyes of the world. Recall the unseemly rush to accuse Russia and President Putin personally for trying to assassinate the Skripals? That quickly led to Britain cajoling the US and European nations into expelling dozens of Russian diplomats.
No evidence has ever been presented by British authorities to support their sensational claims impugning Russia. The chemical identified as novichok allegedly administered to the Skripals relies on the non-independent claim made by British military intelligence. In violation of due legal process, Russia has never been permitted to assess the alleged evidence.
Furthermore, Sergei and Yulia Skripal have apparently made a full recovery from what was said in the media to be a fatal attack. Four months on, Russia has been denied consular contact with Yulia who is a Russian citizen. Her whereabouts and condition remain uncertain. Arguably, she is being held against her will by the British state in what is a travesty of international law.
Just when the Skripal affair is fading from public discourse due to a dearth of credible circumstances and any follow-up substantiation, along comes a timely reminder of the saga this week with the implausible poisoning of the couple from nearby Amesbury.
Over the next week as Trump travels to Europe to meet with other NATO leaders at the military alliance's annual summit, no doubt the news cycle will be dominated with renewed allegations of "dastardly Kremlin agents" using deadly nerve agents "on the streets of Britain."
Already, political enemies of Trump in the US and in Britain have been rebuking the president for going ahead with his summit with Putin on July 16. Trump has been upbraided for "talking with a dictator," and all sorts of other unhinged smears against Russia.
On one hand, it is understandable why the anti-Trump and anti-Russia brigade are in panic mode. The money-spinning militarism of NATO in Europe has relied on demonizing Russia as a mortal threat to the Western order. If Trump and Putin were to succeed in having a cordial engagement and delve into substantial issues, from Ukraine to Syria, from nuclear arms control to genuinely combating terrorism, then a lot of vested interests stand to lose out massively from such a normalized US-Russia relationship.
There is also not the small matter of the ongoing fantastic World Cup hosted by Russia. Russophobes have been left speechless by the wonderful games being played out across Russia -- in complete negation of earlier pejorative claims. The rest of the world has admired the Russian hospitality and the high standard of sporting facilities.
It is against this backdrop that we might best understand the latest poison incident in England.
If someone wanted to sabotage the Trump-Putin summit and the recent glowing international image of Russia, then a reminder of the Skripal false-flag incident would be an opportune moment.
Consider it. If the poisoning of the Skripals were carried out in the first place by shadowy British state agents with the aim of blackening Russia -- and they succeeded to a point in that aim with the international expulsion of Russian diplomats and the generally negative media coverage -- then how easy it would be for these same agents to target another hapless couple this week.
And, of course, the supine British media give the ridiculous fable an important air of seriousness.
It's a quaint English "refresher course" in public "psy-ops" to revive the stereotype of Russian malfeasance. But more specifically, the aim is to poison the forthcoming Trump-Putin summit.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
1
1
