LONDON: A prime Kremlin official on Monday (Might 26) scoffed at a report that Russia might be concerned in current arson assaults on the non-public house of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a constructing the place he as soon as lived and a automotive that he had owned.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a Monetary Instances report that mentioned UK safety officers have been wanting into whether or not Russia was concerned within the assaults.
The Related Press has not been capable of independently verify the FT report that relied on unnamed senior UK authorities figures. However Peskov, who the London-based paper mentioned didn’t reply to a request when it printed the story Friday, was requested concerning the report at his common press briefing Monday.
“London tends to suspect Russia of something dangerous that occurs within the UK,” Peskov mentioned. “As a rule, all these suspicions are groundless, unsubstantiated and infrequently laughable.”
Nobody was injured within the fires that occurred on three nights between Might 8 and Might 12 in north London, authorities mentioned.
THREE MEN HELD FOR ARSON ATTACKS
Three males with ties to Ukraine face arson prices and are being held with out bail earlier than a listening to on June 6 in London’s Central Prison Court docket.
A prosecutor mentioned there was no clarification for the crimes, and no official has publicly mentioned Moscow is behind the fires.
However the arsons match a sample of disruption that Western officers have accused Russia and its proxies of finishing up dozens of occasions to undermine assist for Ukraine since Moscow’s full-scale invasion three years in the past and to sow division in Europe.
The AP has documented practically 60 incidents through which European governments, prosecutors, intelligence providers or different Western officers blamed Russia, teams linked to Russia or its ally Belarus for cyberattacks, spreading propaganda, plotting killings or committing acts of vandalism, arson, sabotage or espionage because the 2022 invasion.
