Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador to the UK, has indicated that Russia will not accept the findings of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) investigation into the Salisbury nerve agent attack. During a lengthy press conference, he said Russia would only accept the conclusions if there was full transparency about who was carrying out the tests, and if other countries were involved. But the OPCW has said that it is not planning this level of disclosure. Yakovenko also claimed “the majority of the world community” did not back the UK, Nato and the EU in blaming Russia for the Salisbury attack. (See 3.40pm.)
Matt Hancock, the culture secretary, has announced he is summoning Facebook to a meeting next week to discuss its handling of data. He said:
I’ll be meeting Facebook next week. I expect it to explain why they put the data of more than a million of our citizens at risk. This is completely unacceptable, and they must demonstrate this won’t happen again.
That’s all from me for today.
And for the next 10 days too. I will be off next week. If it’s busy, a colleague will be writing the blog from HQ, but if it looks quiet, we may do without.
Greens promise to act as 'insurgents' as they launch local election campaign
Peter Walker
The Green party has launched its local election campaign with a pledge that the party’s councillors will act as “insurgents” to shake up complacent local authorities with traditionally overwhelming Labour or Conservative majorities.
Speaking at a launch event in South London the Green co-leader, Jonathan Bartley, said even a handful of Green representatives could make a difference, arguing that his party had replaced Ukip as the main outside challenger to political orthodoxies.
He cited the example of Alison Teal, one of a handful of Greens on Sheffield city council, who has taken a leading role in opposing the Labour-dominated authority’s hugely controversial plan to cut down more than 17,000 local trees.
“People are incredibly angry and feel incredibly betrayed by these one-party states, councils which have lost touch with local people,” Bartley said.
The party is contesting more than 2,200 seats in the election on May 3 which cover all councils in London and some metropolitan, unitary and district authorities elsewhere in England, about half the total.
The poll will mark a major test for a party which was badly squeezed at the last general election – its vote total fell by more than half from 2015, to just over 500,000 – something seen as being caused in part by the leftward shift of a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour.
However, the Greens are keen to push the message that many Labour councils are different. The launch took place at the Central Hill estate in Crystal Palace, which the Labour-run council wants to demolish despite opposition from many residents.
The local authority, Lambeth, has run into a number of controversies over the way it has responded to reduced funding, notably over schemes to replace housing estates, and the closure of libraries.
Labour holds 59 of the 63 councils seats, with just three Conservatives and one Green as opposition.
But Bartley said he was hopeful of making gains, pointing to a byelection in 2016 which saw the Green candidate come within 36 votes of taking a seat in what had been the borough’s safest Labour ward
“On that basis, any seat across the whole of Lambeth is vulnerable, where people feel the council has lost touch,” he said.
With national politics becoming increasingly two-party – the 2017 election saw the Conservatives and Labour gain almost 83% of all votes – Bartley said the opportunity was there for another party to take over from Ukip as a voice of dissent.
“We’re the insurgents,” he said. “You could call us the Ukip of the left – we have even taken a seat from Ukip. We couldn’t be more opposed to Ukip’s policies on things like migration, but that feeling of not having control is very. very strong.
“I’ve often been around parts of northern England knocking on doors and people say, ‘I’m either going to vote Green or Ukip.’ I tell them, ‘Do you know what we stand for?’ But it is that feeling of being an insurgent party.”
Boris Johnson accuses Russia of 'shameless cynicism'
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has just posted a tweet accusing Russia of “shameless cynicism”.
Yesterday, Russia failed to persuade OPCW that they, the chief suspect, should join an investigation of attempted assassinations in Salisbury. Today’s gambit is to rope the UN Security Council into their disinformation campaign. The world will see through this shameless cynicism
Here are the main points from the press conference given by Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador to the UK.
Spy poisoning: we want transparency in investigation, says Russian ambassador – video
Yakovenko said “the majority of the world community” did not back the UK, Nato and the EU in blaming Russia for the Salisbury attack. As evidence for this, he cited the voting figures from yesterday’s meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). A Russian proposal for a joint British/Russian investigation into Salisbury was defeated, by six votes to 15. But 17 countries abstained, and Yakovenko said that meant a majority of countries were not siding with the UK.
The majority of the world community is not supporting the Western approach.
Yakovenko said it was only Nato countries and countries in the EU that were backing the UK. Countries from Latin America, Africa and Asia were holding back, he said. They wanted evidence, he argued.
He signalled that Russia would not support the conclusions of the OPCW investigation into Salisbury. It would only do so if other countries were involved, he said, calling for transparency. He said he would like Russia to participate, but would settle for other countries having a monitoring role. In response to the first question on this he replied:
As far as the results, of course we will accept the results. But these results should be confirmed by the international community. We want to see who were the experts. For the time being, we don’t know who were the experts. The last time, the team was headed by the British, in Syria. That was a real problem for us. We need an international team.
Then, when asked for clarfication, he said:
We want transparency and we want an international presence in this so-called investigation. Of course we are happy to have Russians there, because we would ask the right questions. But we’ll be happy to have other countries, not just from Nato and the EU, but from India, from China, from Latin America, from Africa. So make it transparent, not a closed shop.
But what Yakovenko was demanding is totally contrary to the way the OPCW operates. As its director general set out in a note (pdf) yesterday, the OPCW “does not disclose the identities of members of teams [carrying out its investigations] or mission planning details to states parties other than the state party hosting the technical assistance visit”. It also does not reveal the laboratories that are carrying out tests as part of its investigations.
Yakovenko said relations between the UK and Russia were “at the lowest level today at least for many years”.
He said Russia had never produced novichok.
The whole story about novichok started in the United States in the ‘90s. It is nothing to do with Russia. We never produced it, we never had novichok. This is a creation of some other countries and some scientists.
He implied Britain was involved in the suspicious deaths of Russian nationals in the UK.
We have a lot of suspicions about Britain. If we take the last 10 years, so many Russian citizens died here in the UK under very strange circumstances.
The last one was Glushkov. He was strangled - as it was said officially - on March 12. He was a Russian businessman - a Russian citizen, not a British citizen - and his case is also classified. We don’t have any access to the investigation, we don’t know anything. We want to know the truth.
My colleague Andrew Roth has an English transcript of the audio that has been broadcast in Russia of what is said to be a conversation between Viktoria Skripal and her cousin Yulia, who was injured in the nerve agent attack and who is still in hospital. But it has not been confirmed that the caller was Yulia.
Yakovenko takes what he says will be the last question.
Q: If Viktoria Skripal gets a visa, will she be accompanied by Russian diplomats? Or is she coming on her own?
Yakovenko says the Russian authorities are not sponsoring her visit. She is coming on her own.
But he says he has offered her transport, and offered to put her up in embassy accommodation. And he has offered to provide an interpreter.
The timing of the visit, and how long she stays, is up to her, he says.
She says Viktoria Skripal says the BBC helped her filling out her visa forms.
But if she does visit, that will not be a substitute for consular access. The Russians are still pushing for consular access, he says. He says the Russians have to investigate what happened.
He says Viktoria Skripal does not have good English.
And that’s it. He finishes Yakovenko by telling the journalists that they missed lunch, “but got a lot of good things”.
Q: Have you had information about the antidote given to the Skripals?
Yakovenko says Russia has asked about this, but not received an answer. He says the head of Porton Down said in his interview that no antidote was used.
Yakovenko says he is really pleased to hear Yulia Skripal is recovering. He hopes Sergei Skripal recovers too. He acknowledges that Skripal betrayed his country. But he went to prison and received his punishment and was then released, he says.
I’m really happy and I hope Sergei Skripal will also recover and I’m quite sure that one day Yulia will come back to Moscow where she has job, apartments, she is a wealthy person and she is doing well.
As far as the father, that is his choice, he decided to live here in the UK, no problem.
Yakovenko says, outside EU, most countries do not accept UK’s claims about Russia being to blame for Salisbury attack.
Yakovenko says he invited ambassadors in London to a meeting yesterday. The EU was represented by Bulgaria (which has the EU presidency). He says the EU backs Britain, but the other countries don’t. They will not accept what the UK is saying without evidence.
Yakovenko says, outside the EU, most countries in the world do not accept the UK’s claims about Russia being to blame for the Salisbury attack.
Q: You say Russia accepts due process? But how can that be the case if you are insisting that Russians are involved in the OPCW investigation?
Yakovenko says it is not just about Russian involvement; it wants other countries involved. It does not want the investigation to be carried out by just a small range of people.
Russia does not just want British investigators involved.
Q: The OPCW never names those carrying out its investigations.
Yakovenko says he thinks the UK could have two motives for being behind the attack; to divert attention from Brexit, and to take the lead internationally in confronting Russia.
Q: Yulia Skripal has issued a statement today. (See 2.08pm.) She said she and her father were “incapacitated”. Doesn’t that add credibility to the British case?
Yakovenko says he has not seen the statement.
Q: You keep smiling and joking. That suggests you are not taking this seriously.
Yakovkenko says that is just his style. Don’t read too much into it, he suggests. He says Russia is taking this very seriously.
Yakovenko says British experts are coming out with a range of stories about how Russia is to blame.
Asked about the search of a Russian plane at Heathrow last week, Yakovenko says the Russians did not object to the search. But the British wanted the pilot and the crew to leave the plane while it happened. That is what Russia objected to, he says.
Here is a summary of the press conference (which hasn’t finished) from the BBC’s Norman Smith.
So in summary... Russian take on #salisbury 1. It wasn't us 2. We never made Novichok 3. It was probably you Brits 4. Most of the world is against you.
Yulia Skripal says attack has been 'disorientating' but her 'strength growing daily'
The Metropolitan Police have just release a statement from Yulia Skripal, one of the victims of the Salisbury attack. She said:
I woke up over a week ago now and am glad to say my strength is growing daily. I am grateful for the interest in me and for the many messages of goodwill that I have received.
I have many people to thank for my recovery and would especially like to mention the people of Salisbury that came to my aid when my father and I were incapacitated. Further than that, I would like to thank the staff at Salisbury District Hospital for their care and professionalism.
I am sure you appreciate that the entire episode is somewhat disorientating, and I hope that you’ll respect my privacy and that of my family during the period of my convalescence.
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