Russia, UK Should Not Abandon Full-Scale Relations Because Of Skripal Affair - Putin

Umer Jamshaid Published June 29, 2019 | 01:49 PM

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday, when speaking about his meeting with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, that Russia and the United Kingdom should not abandon their full-scale relations because of the Skripal poisoning case

OSAKA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th June, 2019) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday, when speaking about his meeting with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, that Russia and the United Kingdom should not abandon their full-scale relations because of the Skripal poisoning case.

The meeting between the two leaders took place on Friday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan's Osaka.

"I think that common sense should triumph. I am convinced simply that it is necessary to restore full-format relations, and the representatives of the UK business, with whom I met most recently in Moscow, spoke about this. None of the British firms left the Russian market, and is not going to leave ... Therefore, the task of politicians is at least not to hinder the development of normal situations. It is better to support these positive trends," Putin said at a press conference.

The president added that May's interest toward the Skripal case had been prompted by his interview with the Financial Times newspaper, where he said that all that fuss about intelligence agents was not worth interstate relations.

"The prime minister posed questions about Mr. [Sergei] Skripal. They arose because your fellow journalists from FT [Financial Times] raised this issue again themselves, and I had to answer. But it also made this issue re-emerge. But the prime minister is indeed really tough on this issue, and we talked about this, found out our stances on this issue," Putin explained.

On March 4, 2018, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench near a shopping center in Salisbury. London claimed they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent and accused Moscow of staging the attack. Moscow has refuted all accusations.