Growing Frustration in British Govt as Allegations Against Russia Fail to Pan Out

Foreign Office accused of misleading public on Salisbury poisoning

Weeks of British allegations that Russia is behind poisonings in Salisbury took a big blow when despite repeatedly insisting they’d proven this, British scientists at Porton Down admitted they were unable to determine the source of the poison.

Boris Johnson

This is a mounting problem especially within the British Foreign Office, as Boris Johnson had invested heavily in blaming Russia, and is under growing pressure for lying about the facts of the situation. Johnson even claimed Porton Down had told him there was “no doubt” the poison was Russian. That’s clearly untrue.

So now, Johnson is facing pressure for lying to the press, and the Foreign Office has also had to delete a Tweet that doubled down on this lie and claimed Porton Down’s results, which again, were inconclusive on origin, vindicated the Russia claim.

British officials clearly put the cart before the horse, assuming something would support the allegations. That nothing has is clearly a mounting source of frustration for officials, and is likely to start putting serious pressure on officials, who are looking increasingly foolish.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.