The former Russian intelligence colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia suffered in Salisbury allegedly from the actions of the General Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, a structure formerly known as the Main Intelligence Agency, the GRU. This was reported on July 15 by The New York Times, referring to British, American and former US officials who disclosed, according to journalists, this information on condition of anonymity. An ex-official from the United States said that British investigators are close to identifying the identities of specialists who carried out the poisoning of the Violins. It is noted that the operation could be carried out by some other Russian special service, or a private unit. The publication stresses that the incident with the former GRU officer is in keeping with the tradition of retaliatory actions by the Soviet and Russian intelligence agencies against traitors. In early June, near Salisbury, in the city of Amesbury, 2 people were again poisoned by a nerve agent. Britain reiterated that it does not exclude Russia's involvement in the incident. The injured 45-year-old Charlie Rowley and 44-year-old Don Sturges were hospitalized, the woman died.

In the opinion of Nikolai Platoshkin, head of the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy of the Moscow Humanitarian University, the next accusations against the Russian Federation are just an excuse for disrupting the summit of the leaders of Russia and the United States in Helsinki. "These statements are aimed at frustrating the meeting between Trump and Putin. If earlier the Russians were hawking their own, now they have aimed at the sacred, the subjects of Her Majesty.

What kind of meeting can there be? Sanctions must be reintroduced, "Platoshkin said earlier on the air of the NSS. Negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump begin on the afternoon of July 16 in the capital of Finland Helsinki.