ABSTRACT
The sheer volume of conspiratorial readings featured within RT's coverage of the Skripal affair makes it impractical to comprehensively trace them all: there are many overlaps in the conspiracy logics that they display, yet there is rarely a logical coherence between them. By suggesting a conspiracy between the official institutions involved in investigating the case, RT's reporting also opened up space to question the key facts that had been established. The same conspiracy lenses were applied when, Russia's The Insider and their UK-based collaborators, Bellingcat used open sources, leaked information and old-fashioned investigative journalism, to identify 'Petrov' and 'Boshirov' as military intelligence operatives, later revealing their names as Colonel Chepiga and Dr Mishkin. One of the key recurring themes on RT when covering any stories that involve international criticisms of Russia is that they are motivated by Russophobic prejudice.
