FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Who had good reason to attack the Salisbury spy?

Who had good reason to attack the Salisbury spy?

Re: “To find who poisoned the Salisbury spy, ask ‘who benefits?’”, Have Your Say, March 21.

For Clara Holzer to suggest that Britain might have poisoned ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury is just ludicrous. Why on earth would the British government think that, by staging such an attack, it would discredit President Putin and Russia ahead of the Russian elections? Putin’s popularity in Russia remains high. It was clear that he was going to win the election by a landslide, and the poisoning incident has had no impact whatsoever on the election result. In any case, discrediting Russia provides no geopolitical benefit to Britain.
Furthermore, the suggestion that Prime Minister May would order such an attack to deflect attention away from her government’s travails is beyond idiotic. No British government would ever release a toxic nerve agent on the streets of a British city, and in any case the government’s problems have eased recently. The Brexit negotiations remain tough but are progressing, and economic indicators are more positive than of late.
As for “cui bono” (who benefits), well, the poisoning could show the Russian people that their president is maintaining his “tough guy” image by demonstrating what happens to those who betray Mother Russia. Obviously I don’t know if that’s what really happened, but it’s more believable than pinning the blame on Britain. International experts have now been called in to examine and analyse samples of the nerve agent used in the attack, which shows that the British government is willing to rely on independent and impartial parties to help solve the case.
I would respectfully suggest that in future Clara Holzer uses common sense and logic before forming her opinions, instead of being naively led up the garden path by conspiracy theorists, and by misinformation and disinformation from the Kremlin and its sympathisers.
Robin Grant
Bangkok

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