'Interview With Petrov and Boshirov is a Genius Political Move' - Journalist

The UK Foreign Office said that it still considered Petrov and Boshirov agents affiliated with Russia's military intelligence agency, despite everything they in an interview with Margarita Simonyan, Sputnik and RT editor-in-chief. The two suspects denied they had anything to do with the Skripal poisoning.

Sputnik discussed the latest development in the Skripal's case with Katie Hopkins, journalist and political commentator based in the UK.

Sputnik: What is your take on the latest development in the Skripal's case?

Katie Hopkins: I think it's an embarrassment for the UK government because from the outset they have been determined that this was an attack that was coordinated higher up in the Russian hierarchy. I think it was a brilliant decision by the Russians and by Vladimir Putin to call on the two gentlemen and say: "Have the interview, sit down, do the interview, talk about why you were there in Salisbury, tell the people your version of events."

And I think it's worked very well in terms of countering the narrative provided by the British government, and I would say that the British citizens who were born in the UK, there are plenty of people here in the UK who do not trust our own government, who do not trust what the Prime Minister has to tell us and who are perfectly willing to believe another side of the story, because we know that Theresa May will always like to make Vladimir Putin and the Russians out to be monsters and, in my experience, that simply isn't true.

READ MORE: UK's Johnson Calls Salisbury 'Suspects' Murderers, Urges Them to Appear in Court

Sputnik: Some would say that what you've basically said already, that this is brilliant and now we know that there's no relation, but others would say that there's a lot of details that were revealed during this interview that actually could raise even more questions about who these men really were. What do you make of Salisbury being the destination of choice?

Katie Hopkins: Yes, of course, there's every opportunity for people to question what these gentlemen have said and their story, of course, you could pull it apart very easily. You could say, "who realistically is going to come and visit Salisbury of all places?" Not that it's not interesting and lovely. Why would they be put off by the snow on the ground? They're Russians, for goodness sake, Russians are brilliant at dealing with snow.

Clearly, you could pull this story apart any which way you want, but the fact still remains that the UK has always wished this to be a Russia issue, led by Russians and the fact that Russia has decided to place these two gentlemen in front of a camera and have them speak out is actually a genius political move because the easiest thing in the world is to hide them away, keep them hidden and allow the British government to declare that it's exposed the truth of this story.

READ MORE: Salisbury UK Plot Puts Innocent Men Into 'Witch Trial Environment' — Pundit

You know, let's not forget, and let your listeners and viewers not forget, our own British government took one of our own British citizens and threw them in jail within five hours for a 30-months jail term for talking about Islamist and Muslim rape gangs, that was a British citizen. So we may point the finger at Russia for doing terrible things but actually our British government does terrible things to its own people, and I actually think at a very personal level don't be a spy against the Russians, it's not going to be good for your future longevity, it's not a great way to spend your life.

So I sit strongly with the Russians on this, I don't believe Putin's a monster, I enjoyed very much visiting Russia and I found the people to be proudly patriotic and very supportive of Putin, so I don't buy the narrative pushed out by British leaders.

Sputnik: What do you think is going to happen next? Do you think of this story has reached its fruition or will there be a response to the video, maybe there will be more from Theresa May?

Katie Hopkins: I think it's super interesting, I don't think we'll see much more of a response from a political front. I think the subject will be allowed to be dropped almost. There may be some suggestion from her that she will continue to pursue justice, but we won't see much happen, and I think where we've reached in our media, actually, is a point where people are now required to decide which truth that they want to believe.

Do you want to believe the version of the story that you've heard from Theresa May, that these guys were government operatives, that they came over here to commit a poisoning act and then they went back, or do you want to side with the gentleman, with Vladimir Putin, with the Russians, who said, "we have nothing to do with this, we didn't send these guys, they were there as tourists."

Those are the two standpoints right now, I don't think anybody's going to move off of those standpoints or change their mind. I don't see anybody being found guilty of this crime, it will be an unsolved crime, and I think people will have to choose who they decide to believe.

READ MORE: No Official Data Showing Skripal Case 'Suspects' Violated Law Anywhere — Kremlin

And personally, for my money, number one, don't be a spy on Russia, and number two, never go up and challenge Vladimir Putin, he's a strong man and he's proud of his country and Russian citizens are proud of him and that's something Theresa May can't say about herself and it's something I wouldn't say about Theresa May.

The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.