How badly did Russia’s interview with the Skripal poisoning suspects backfire?

Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, two Russian nationals accused of poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil, appear Wednesday on the Kremlin-backed RT news network. (AFP/RT/Ruptly)

RT, Russia’s state-backed international broadcaster, aired an exclusive interview with the two Russian men accused of poisoning Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the English town of Salisbury. The two suspects denied all involvement, claiming to be tourists interested in Salisbury Cathedral.

This interview could have been simply one more episode in the fierce narrative battle between British and Russian authorities. However, this does not appear to have been the case, according to the latest research from the “Reframing Russia” project, which looks at the state broadcaster’s efforts to reshape Russia’s external image. The data suggest that — for RT, at least — this broadcast backfired.