"I've already said that we, unfortunately, live in the epoch of the political culture degradation. And when I said this, I meant our UK colleagues first of all. I was saying this with a feeling of regret, as this is certainly a country with centuries-old traditions of aristocraticism, parliamentarism and knighthood. The things that happen now are a gross violation of all the traditions that used to make us respect the UK people so much," Nebenzya said in an interview for the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program, broadcast by the Russia 1 TV channel.
"It's difficult to imagine a serious court, even a UK court, for example, that would agree to examine the arguments of the UK side… No one needs the truth, as a new, absolutely unique and absolutely efficient political technology has been introduced ― lodging charges and pointing at the guilty without any proof. No one needs [to know who is] guilty, or, rather, the guilty persons have been announced, but no one needs the justice," Nebenzya explained.
He went on to say that the United Kingdom's claims that it would not seek the extradition of the suspects as Russia would not give them away, in any case, meant that the UK side did not actually need them, as it considered the problem as settled just because they had "appointed" the Russian nationals as being responsible for the crime.
Nebenzya noted that the "directors of this quite a cheap play" were not interested in obtaining Russia's answers.
READ MORE: UK Reveals Suspects to Not Let Skripal Case Languish in Archives — IR Scholar
"They are certainly trying to turn us into an outsider country, into a malevolent member of the international community that neglects its obligations, and they are, ultimately, provoking a new round of sanctions," Nebenzia said.
"Of course, they [in the UN Security Council] subtly imply that Putin, the authorities are one thing, while the Russian people are another thing. This is certainly very naive, and, most importantly, far from being true, but yes, they have really placed their bets on the regime exhaustion," Nebenzia noted.
On September 5, May said that two Russian nationals, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, suspected of carrying out the Salisbury poisoning attack, were Russian military intelligence officers. The Russian Foreign Ministry denied the allegations of the suspects' ties to the military intelligence, while the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said it was eager to cooperate with the UK law enforcement agencies on the investigation.
On July 4, two people were poisoned in the city of Amesbury, with the UK police claiming that the same nerve agent had been used.
