[Editor’s note: After the deeply embarrassing farce surrounding the Skripals, I hoped that we would never again hear about ‘Novichok’ or have to be subjected to some of the most blatant lying by members of the British government about those evil Russians.

A vain hope, it has taken just 4 months for the second instalment of the embarrassing farce to appear and no, it’s nothing to do with ‘ze Germans’ despite what some will try to claim.

Timing is often everything with these fabricated false narratives and in this instance there appear to be two events this latest instalment of the farce has been timed to coincide with. First, we have the World Cup in Russia, a tournament that has so far been an unqualified success, a festival of football free of any hint of animosity or violence (off the pitch at least) and has done much to boost the image of Russia and the warm, friendly and hospitable nature of it’s people.

Secondly, there are the celebrations of the The National Health Service’s 70th anniversary, which is today, 5th July 2018. As the NHS’s own website puts it “It’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate the achievements of one of the nation’s most loved institutions”. The survival of the Skripals has been oft-touted as a great success for the NHS and no doubt, these two new victims will also survive and maximum propaganda value will be extracted in praise of the chronically underfunded NHS which is struggling to manage the nation’s health problems due to decades of government mis-management and lack of resources.

There is a third aspect to consider, that this latest installment in the Novichoks bollocks is intended to serve as a distraction from something else that the government doesn’t want to be publicised.

Whatever the reasons behind this case, rest assured, it is a load of bollocks, just more embarrassing Russia bashing; confirmation of the fraud will probably come in the disgusting form of Boris Johnson, our most treacherous and vile Foreign Secretary who will most likely repeat his shameful and deeply embarrassing performance from the Skripal case where he was very quick to start spouting foul lies and rhetoric aimed at Russia. Ian]

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Reuters
UK calls on Russia to give details of nerve attack after two more people struck down

By Henry Nicholls

AMESBURY, England (Reuters) – Britain called on Russia to give details about the Novichok nerve agent attack on a former double agent and his daughter after two British citizens were struck down with the same poison.

The two Britons, a 44-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man, were critically ill after an apparently chance encounter with the poison near the site of the March attack on ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Britain accused Russia of poisoning the Skripals with Novichok – a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military during the Cold War – in what is the first known offensive use of such a chemical weapon on European soil since World War Two.

Russia, which is currently hosting the soccer World Cup, has denied any involvement in the March incident and suggested the British security services had carried out the attack to stoke anti-Moscow hysteria.

“The Russian state could put this ‘wrong’ right. They could tell us what happened, what they did and fill in some of the significant gaps that we are trying to pursue,” British Security Minister Ben Wallace said.

“I’m waiting for the phone call from the Russian state.”

The two Britons, who were taken ill on Saturday, were initially thought to have taken an overdose of heroin or crack cocaine, but tests by the Porton Down military research centre showed they had been exposed to Novichok.

Britain should ask Russian experts to help investigate the poisoning, Vladimir Shamanov, head of the Russian parliament’s defence committee, was cited as saying by the RIA news agency.

It is unclear how the two Britons, whose background has nothing to suggest a link to the world of espionage or the former Soviet Union, came into contact with the poison, which is slow to decompose.

“The working assumption would be that these are victims of either the consequences of the previous attack or something else, but not that they were directly targeted,” Wallace said.

Paramedics were called on Saturday morning to a house in Amesbury after the woman, named by media as Dawn Sturgess, collapsed. They returned later in the day when the man, Charlie Rowley, also fell ill.

Amesbury is located seven miles (11 km) north of Salisbury, where Skripal – a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service – and his daughter were found slumped unconscious on a bench on March 4.

NOVICHOK CONTAMINATION

Health chiefs said the risk to the public was low, repeating their earlier advice given after the Skripals were taken ill that the public should wash their clothes and use cleansing wipes to wash down personal items.

But the exposure of two British citizens to a such a dangerous nerve agent will stoke fears that Novichok could be lingering at sites around the ancient English city of Salisbury.

Andrea Sella, professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, said Novichok nerve agents were designed to be quite persistent and did not decompose quickly.

“That means that if a container or a surface was contaminated with this material it would remain a danger for a long time,” Sella said.

“It will be vital to trace the movements of this couple to identify where they might have come into contact with the source.”

After the Skripal poisoning, police investigators in protective hazmat suits scoured Salisbury. They may return, police said.

The March attack prompted the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War as allies sided with Prime Minister Theresa May’s view that Moscow was either responsible or had lost control of the nerve agent.

Moscow also hit back by expelling Western diplomats, questioning how Britain knows that Russia was responsible and offering rival interpretations, including that it amounted to a plot by British secret services.

(Additional reporting by Sarah Young and Kate Holton; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by John Stonestreet)