Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday described the threats of UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to review England’s participation in the 2018 World Cup in Russia due to the “poisoning” incident in the town of Salisbury as “insane.”
Earlier in the day, Johnson said it would be “very difficult to imagine” that the UK representation at the World Cup could “go ahead in a normal way” in light of the Salisbury incident, stressing that London will “certainly consider that.”
Russia will host its first FIFA World Cup from June 14 to July 15.
In her comment on Johnson’s remark to the Govorit Moskva radio station, Zakharova said she considered it “insane.”
On Monday, local police said that a man and a woman were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping centre in Salisbury, adding that both of them were “in a critical condition.”
They are being treated in hospital for suspected exposure to an unknown substance.
The BBC reported, citing own sources, that the man was in fact Sergei Skripal, a former officer of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) accused of spying on behalf of London, who was granted asylum in the UK after a U.S.-Russia spy exchange.
Earlier in the day, Johnson confirmed that the man and woman were Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
In 2006, Skripal was sentenced in Russia to 13 years in prison for cooperating with the UK Secret Intelligence Service MI-6 and transferring names of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe.
In 2010, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree pardoning Skripal.
