Sergei Skripal Poisoning and Assassination Attempt

 

It was marked by the mutual accusations, and more than 100 alleged Russian intelligence officers were expelled from the Western countries, while the Kremlin responded with the reciprocal measures.

Denys Kolesnyk participated in the program “Actu à la carte” broadcasted by the French TV channel CNews to debate about this new “cold vague” between Russia and the West.

He underlined, that neither the assassination attempt of Sergei Skripal nor the massive expulsion of spies wasn’t for the first time in history. For instance, the last massive expulsion took place in 1985 following the so-called “Gordievsky Affair” resulting in the expulsion of more than 30 Soviet diplomats.

In Denys’ opinion, the deterioration of affairs can be observed at least from 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia with the 2014 intervention in Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea. Therefore, the “Sergei Skripal Affair” is nothing more than an additional piece in a chain of events.

He also mentioned that the information and cyber operations are the critical part of the Russian top security documents such as the National Security Strategy and the Military Doctrine. Estonia was the first NATO member-state where Russia carried out massive cyber attacks in 2007, while Ukraine became some laboratory suffering a massive cyber attack in 2015 aimed against the power grid resulting in a temporary blackout. The issue of the Nord Stream 2 and Russian military presence in Syria also discussed.

Concluding, Denys Kolesnyk stressed that Russia’s primary goal regarding Europe is to sow discord within the Allied camp.