MOSCOW. March 15 (Interfax) - It will not take Russia long to announce its response to steps taken by London against Moscow following the poisoning of former Russian Main Intelligence Directorate officer Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, the Kremlin said, adding that President Vladimir Putin would choose the most optimal option among measures to be suggested to him by the Russian Foreign Ministry and other agencies.
"It won't take us long to come up with response measures. These proposals will be formulated by the Foreign Ministry and other agencies, but it is up to the president of the Russian Federation to make a final decision," Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
"There is no doubt that he [Putin] will choose the option that will serve the interests of Russia best of all," Peskov said.
Russia "is perplexed by the stance taken by the UK leadership on the 'Salisbury case' and does not understand this stance," he said.
"The accusations put forward by London are not backed by anything. They started to be made even before any information could appear about the substance used [in Salisbury], which itself points to the presence of all signs of a provocation against Russia in this situation," Peskov said.
"In our opinion, the UK side's position appears to be irresponsible both from standpoint of diplomatic relations and also from the point of view of the final objectives and the interests of a genuine investigation and a search for those people who actually were behind this [Skripal's poisoning]," he said.
In such a way, the UK "has breached international law," Peskov said.
"This violation committed by the UK is obvious. Therefore, we are certainly troubled by the current situation, but will patiently continue speaking and consistently convey our position to the international community that the Russian side is not involved in the incident with Skripal in Salisbury," Peskov said.