Leader of the Labour party Jeremy Corbyn said today that he believes the nerve agent used in the attack originated from Russia in some form, and called on the UK government to provide Russian investigators with a sample to determine where the nerve agent came from.
"What I'm saying is the weapons were made from Russia, clearly. I think Russia has to be held responsible for it, but there has to be an absolutely definitive answer to the question where did the nerve agent come from? I asked the Russians be given a sample so that they can say categorically one way or the other," Corbyn said during a radio interview with British media.
The Labour leader drew criticism when he called on the UK government to "not rush ahead of the evidence," though some did praise his stance, while many others condemned the media's recent coverage of Corbyn's position on the Skripal investigation.
It’s a Vendetta.. an actual vendetta the Media campaign against Corbyn is astonishing just in its sheer scale.. every single day relentless.. journalists on here are obsessed with him, just crying like babies about every single word he says..
— ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) 20 марта 2018 г.
Just cancelled my direct debit for the TV License fee.
— MacAlba #FBSI (@BlogAlba) 19 марта 2018 г.
I'm not a Labour voter, nor Jeremy Corbyn fan, but what the BBC have done and how they continue to lie about it is a disgrace. This could happen to anyone who isn't a Tory!
I refuse to pay a single penny MORE for this.
Several reports have emerged of the nerve agent being manufactured in countries other than Russia, such as Iran, and one of the developers of the A-234 nerve agent, Leonid Rink, recently told Sputnik that the weapon could "easily" have been produced by British scientists.
Mr. Rink added that the UK isn't providing Russia with a sample of the agent used in the incident in Salisbury earlier this month as Russian scientists would quickly be able to determine its origin, and "it will immediately become clear that this is not a Russian technology."
READ MORE: Skripal Case: 'Fantastic Way to Distract British Public From Brexit' — Author
Corbyn responded "sure" when he was asked by the radio presenter if he would still do business with Vladimir Putin — perhaps referring to PM May's recent comments about the UK looking to countries other than Russia to meet its natural gas and energy needs.
Russian natural gas imports account for a large chunk of Europe's combined energy mix, and a consortium of Russian and European energy companies are jointly building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will approximately double the capacity of Russian natural gas which can be exported to Europe.
