LONDON: A top Kremlin official on Monday (May 26) scoffed at a report that Russia could be involved in recent arson attacks on the private home of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a building where he once lived and a car that he had owned.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a Financial Times report that said UK security officials were looking into whether Russia was involved in the attacks.
The Associated Press has not been able to independently confirm the FT report that relied on unnamed senior UK government figures. But Peskov, who the London-based paper said did not respond to a request when it published the story Friday, was asked about the report at his regular press briefing Monday.
“London tends to suspect Russia of anything bad that happens in the UK,” Peskov said. “As a rule, all these suspicions are groundless, unsubstantiated and often laughable.”
No one was injured in the fires that occurred on three nights between May 8 and May 12 in north London, authorities said.
THREE MEN HELD FOR ARSON ATTACKS
Three men with ties to Ukraine face arson charges and are being held without bail before a hearing on June 6 in London’s Central Criminal Court.
A prosecutor said there was no explanation for the crimes, and no official has publicly said Moscow is behind the fires.
But the arsons fit a pattern of disruption that Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of carrying out dozens of times to undermine support for Ukraine since Moscow’s full-scale invasion three years ago and to sow division in Europe.
The AP has documented nearly 60 incidents in which European governments, prosecutors, intelligence services or other Western officials blamed Russia, groups linked to Russia or its ally Belarus for cyberattacks, spreading propaganda, plotting killings or committing acts of vandalism, arson, sabotage or espionage since the 2022 invasion.
Source: CNA
