The interweaving of Czech and Estonian intelligence services in the Skripal case is another motive to accuse Russia in poisoning

Obviously, in the absence of any evidence of Russia’s involvement in Sergei and Yulia Skripal’s poisoning, UK special services are desperately trying to find a “motive” that could explain Moscow’s alleged guilt. After all, for the lack of specific facts proving Russia’s involvement, the “motive” remains the only opportunity to link the Salisbury incident with a Russian trace, as all the previous arguments like “Russia has a law which allows to kill traitors” have been completely debunked.

Indeed, the former military intelligence officer sharing best practices with Czech and Estonian colleagues along with constant contacts with his MI6 handler could appear for the public as more or less plausible motivation of “Russian retribution for a traitor”. But the question arises why this information comes from the New York Times and not British officials, and not in the first days after the attack, but two months later? And, as usual, the leak in question deals with secret services, and therefore cannot be verified by the public.

The mention of the Czech Republic and Estonia is meant to keep the policy going to draw the maximum number of the UK and US international partners into the Salisbury case. We don’t think this effort will be successful — after the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats, which turned out to be groundless, it’s unlikely that even Britain’s allies would take its statements for granted.