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Russia's Foreign Ministry Suggests Britain Might Be Behind Yulia Skripal's Poisoning

Peter Nicholls / Reuters

A Russian Foreign Ministry official said on Wednesday that Britain may be behind a chemical attack on Yulia Skripal, daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

"Logic suggests that there are only two possible things," Vladimir Yermakov, head of the ministry's non-proliferation and arms control department, told a meeting with foreign ambassadors based in Moscow.

"Either the British authorities are not able to provide protection from such a, let's say, terrorist attack on their soil, or they, whether directly or indirectly, I am not accusing anyone, have orchestrated an attack on a Russian citizen," Yermakov said. 

Earlier this month, Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former spy and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the English city of Salisbury. 

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said it was "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible for the poisoning of Skripals using a military-grade nerve agent. Russia denies responsibility for attack. 

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