ZCZC
BFF-25
BRITAIN-RUSSIA-POISON-VICTIM
UK nerve agent victim meets Russia’s envoy in London: reports
LONDON, April 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A British man poisoned along with his
partner with a nerve agent, amid an assassination attempt on a Russian ex-spy
in England blamed on Moscow, met its top UK envoy on Saturday, according to
reports.
Charlie Rowley, 45, whose partner Dawn Sturgess died after exposure to the
toxin, held a 90-minute meeting with Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko at
Russia’s embassy in London, Britain’s Sunday Mirror said.
“I went along to ask them ‘why did your country kill my girlfriend?'” he
told the tabloid newspaper.
“But I didn’t really get any answers. I just got Russian propaganda,”
Rowley added, saying Yakovenko’s explanations of Russian innocence in the
plot were “ridiculous”.
Rowley and Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three children, who lived
near the southwestern English city of Salisbury, fell ill on June 30 last
year.
Authorities determined they had been exposed to Novichok, a military-grade
nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the latter days of the Cold
War.
The poison was contained in a perfume bottle that Rowley had found in
Salisbury and given to Sturgess.
She died eight days later but after two weeks in an induced coma, he was
discharged from hospital.
It followed former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter
Yulia being left in critical condition after they were targeted with Novichok
in Salisbury three months earlier.
The pair survived and have made full recoveries, according to British
authorities.
Western allies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being
ultimately responsible for the poisoning, which sparked dozens of diplomatic
expulsions by both sides.
British prosecutors in September issued arrest warrants for two alleged
officers of Russia’s military intelligence service, known as the GRU.
But the Kremlin has repeatedly denounced the accusations as
“unacceptable.”
“The ambassador kept saying the substance definitely wasn’t the novichok
they had made because if it was it would have killed everyone,” Rowley told
the Mirror.
“He (Yakovenko) kept on saying the British won’t talk to him so he can’t
tell us anything that he hasn’t read in the media, so he can only give his
view.”
A Russian TV station also reported Saturday’s meeting, saying Rowley was
eager for answers that Britain had failed to provide.
Yakovenko gave him a book on the “unanswered questions” concerning the
events in Salisbury and a tour of Russia’s grand west London embassy on one
of its most exclusive streets, it added.
BSS/AFP/RY/1618 hrs