NEW YORK. March 15 (Interfax) - The United Kingdom has blocked Russia's draft statement for the press calling on all states concerned to cooperate as part of the investigation into the poisoning of former GRU colonel Sergei Skripal, spokesman for the Russian permanent mission to the UN Fyodor Strzhizhovsky told Interfax.
"A brief and fact-based draft statement for the press of the UN Security Council that Russia proposed at the Council's meeting on March 14 was calling for the soonest possible civilized investigation of the high-profile chemical incident in the UK in line with the current standards of the OPCW. Representatives of the UK blatantly blocked it under politicized pretexts," Strzhizhovsky said.
"The UK made amendments that distort the essence of the document that was proposed to preserve unity in the UN Secretary Council on this issue," he said.