Only 3% Of Russians Think Russian Security Services Perpetrated Attack On Skripals - Poll

A total of 84 percent of Russians have heard about the attack against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK city of Salisbury in March, but only three percent of them believe that Russian intelligence services are responsible for the attack as London claims, a poll showed on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2018) A total of 84 percent of Russians have heard about the attack against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK city of Salisbury in March, but only three percent of them believe that Russian intelligence services are responsible for the attack as London claims, a poll showed on Thursday.

The poll carried out by the Russian analytical center Levada-Center showed that 56 percent of the respondents believed that "anyone" could have attempted to poison the Skripals and almost 30 percent said that the UK special services could be the ones behind the attack.

The poll was conducted among 1,600 people, who were personally interviewed between October 18-24.

The Skripals were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on March 4. London and its allies accused Moscow of having plotted the attack and poisoned the Skripals with what they believe to be military-grade nerve agent A234 allegedly related to the nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union.

The UK Porton Down lab, however, could not prove that the nerve agent was made in Russia or determine its country of origin.

Moscow categorically denied all allegations, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying that the Skripal affair was falling apart due to the lack of evidence proving Russia's involvement. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that it had sent about 60 diplomatic notes to the UK Foreign Office, demanding that Russia should be given access to the investigation and offering cooperation but to no avail.

On September 5, UK prosecutors said that they had evidence enough to charge two Russian citizens, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with the attack. UK Prime Minister Theresa May said the two men were officers of the Russian military intelligence service GRU, but did not provide any evidence. Boshirov and Petrov, in turn, refuted any involvement in the Skripal case, stressing that they visited Salisbury as tourists and worked in the fitness industry.