Russia's campaign to discredit claims about nerve agent attack is working in Moscow
The daughter of a Russian double agent who was poisoned says she's growing stronger every day. British police released a statement Thursday from Sergei Skripal's daughter, Yulia Skripal. It's her first public comments since she and her father came in contact with a chemical nerve agent in Salisbury, England, that hospitalized them both.
The Kremlin continues to deny any involvement in the incident and as CBS News' Charlie D'Agata reports, Russian efforts to discredit allegations they were responsible seem to be working in Moscow.
Russian state television appeared to have pulled off a coup earlier this week when it aired a phone call allegedly between Yulia and her cousin Viktoria.
"Everything is fine" and "fixable," she's is heard saying, and as for her father Sergei's health: "Nobody has any problems that can't be put right."
Even Russian TV said the audio couldn't be verified. Not that it matters. It's just the latest episode in a month-long campaign of alternate reality by Russian state media ever since Britain accused the Kremlin of directing an attack on the Russian spy and his daughter, using the Russian-made Novichok nerve agent.
A popular TV host said blaming Russia is a bit like saying if someone's hit in the head with an iPad, America is to blame because the iPad is a U.S. invention – which Mikael Fishman, the former editor of the Moscow Times, called "totally absurd."
"But absurdity is part of this show," Fishman said. "The Kremlin is managing, managing every message it sends through federal television. This is how basically Russian nation gets its political agenda."
And it is a message appears to be getting through, D'Agata learned when speaking to Russians on the streets of Moscow.
"Do you believe the British?" D'Agata asked one woman, who replied, "Of course not....I can say that I am a patriot of my country."
Another man called the accusations against Russia "anti-Russian strategy."
They're not alone. While not everybody he recently spoke to in Moscow fully buys their own country's story, nobody believes Britain's version of events.
