Russian trolls on social media today claimed the fire that erupted some 1.5 miles from Heathrow overnight could have been a Vladimir Putin sabotage operation. The blaze engulfed a substation in Hayes, and sparked a widespread power outage that also affected the major London air hub and forced its closure until the end of the day.
Now, Russian trolls are making fun of the incident, claiming two suspects in the Novichok poisonings of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018 may be involved. One post on Kremlin-funded Readovka news outlet said, referring to the Salisbury landmark: “Petrov and Boshirov came to see the cathedral again.” The GRU military intelligence officers, whose real names are Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, are wanted in Britain for the murder and attempted murder. The Kremlin has always denied involvement in the poisonings.
Another comment suggested the pair were travelling again: “Are Petrov and Boshirov on vacation?”
Another wrote: “Now Petrov and Boshirov went to see Big Ben. The excursion was a success.”
A commenter said: “Thus [with this fire] Putin is trying to break the will of the British people to help their Ukrainian brothers for free.”
A commenter called Dima said: “Are they going to look for a ‘Russian trace’ again?”
Yet another: “Where are Petrov and Bashirov? Are they inspecting the London spires…?”
Another wrote: “Will Starmer jump from the [Salisbury Cathedral] spire shouting: ‘The Russians are coming!’”
In what appeared to be a concerted trolling operation, the Russian commenters blamed Britain for its support for Ukraine, and claimed the disruption to Heathrow was a fair answer.
But one person named Marina posted: “Oh, that’s not enough, for all the evil [the British] have done….they’ve been sowing evil around the world since time immemorial.”
Another said: “Burn this stinking island to hell… along with its vile inhabitants…”
One more post said: “Russians we did it.”
Andrey posted: “There shouldn’t be a working airport on the island, just like London, and the island should have been charred for three years already. Sooner or later, but it will have to be done.”
Several other trolls suggested the fire, which is creating huge travel disruption, may have been caused by Shahed drones, of the kind Russia nightly uses to trigger carnage in Ukraine.
A report by independent Russian news sources Agentsvo and TV Rain claimed in November that two Russian agents behind the notorious Salisbury Novichok poisonings were “spearheading Vladimir Putin’s new campaign of sabotage in Western countries”.
The UK Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, described this morning the fire at a sub-station near Heathrow as “catastrophic” and “unprecedented”. Yet, he said to be “reticent” to draw any conclusions just yet, telling LBC theree was at the time no indication of “foul play”.
