The whole "Skripal affair" was launched by the UK government in an attempt to attain certain political goals, Zakharova believes

MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. The UK intelligence services could be involved in orchestrating the Skripal case, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday. "The circumstances only confirm the British authorities’ provocative motives and their obvious desire to use the orchestrated Skripal case for their own unscrupulous anti-Russian purposes," she said. "Also, it is not improbable that British officials, including the intelligence services, could be involved in the Salisbury provocation."

Read also Russian envoy comments on Yulia Skripal’s statement

The Skripal affair was fabricated in an attempt to show that Britain is in the forefront of world politics, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman added. "The whole affair was launched by the Theresa May government in an attempt to attain internal political aims and apparently to demonstrate that Britain is in the forefront of foreign political activity," Zakharova said. On March 4, former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, 66, who had been earlier sentenced in Russia for spying for the UK, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench near the Maltings shopping center in Salisbury, the UK. Police said they had been exposed to a nerve agent.