Pride aside, the UK needs to unequivocally apologise to Russia over their damaging but unfounded allegations that Moscow was behind the attack on former double agent Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England’s southern city of Salisbury in March.
Any forthcoming apology will go a long way in the repairing of the damaged bilateral relations between two of Europe’s important players.
For the uninitiated, as soon as the Skripals were found and hospitalised in Sainsbury hospital, UK’s foreign secretary Boris Johnson was adamant that the attack could have been carried out only by Russia. “Only the Russians have the means and the motive” to carry out the attack, according to UK’s initial stance.
However, a flurry of factors that have since emerged has weakened the UK’s claims in the Skripals story. In a number of discrepancies unfolding, The Skripals have miraculously survived what the British authorities had insisted was certain death within days. Remember, the Russians were accused of attacking the Skripals using a military grade chemical weapon known as “Novichok”, a lethal mixture that kills the nerves and cells.
In the midst of the discredited version of the foreign office is the fact that when they were first admitted to hospital the Skripals were treated for Opioid overdose and that was done without the protective clothing required when treating chemical weapon victims. This means that the medical staff that came into contact with the Skripals would have been in harm’s way had Minister Johnson’s version been accurate.
Nearly three months after the attack, the Skripals are alive and kicking and Yulia appeared in public for the first time and spoke of her desire to one day return to Russia.
The Skripals saga, in my opinion, has caused unnecessary strain between two great countries that need each other. On the one hand the UK is grappling with an unknown future of exiting the Eurozone following the yes Brexit vote. Quite a lot of anxiety and apprehension is permeating the population to a point where as things stand one would be forgiven for concluding that those who voted for a no-Brexit were somehow robbed of victory at the polls.
On the other hand Moscow need the friendship of London in the wake of controversial EU sanctions which have seen the value of the Russian currency Ruble depreciate.
The many loopholes in the Skripal’s matter have the potential to cause great damage to the bilateral relations between Moscow and London and this is undesirable. Already, some of the UK’s allies who fell for the anti-Russia propaganda are concerned about the displeasure of their voters. Many of these countries demonstrated their support to the UK by expelling Russian envoys from their capitals, a move of course which Moscow countered by doing the same.
Anton Unkin, a respected former UN chemical weapons inspector who worked in Iraq, believes that the UK’s decreasing noise in the anti-Russia narrative is “damage control”. Unkin says the fact that London’s allies are beginning to inquire about what the truth really is should be a matter of grave concern for the reputational damage to the British.
But in my book, mistakes are made all the time in diplomatic relations between nations. What is of utmost importance is the ability of aggrieved allies to accept mistakes once proven, patch up the differences and re-focus on those aspects of global affairs that brings even the erstwhile countries back together. There is no harm in doing that.
