U.K. names Russian agents as poisoners
GRU agency has ‘direct support’ of Putin
LONDON• A Russian military intelligence squad behind the Salisbury nerveagent poisoning of a former turncoat spy and his daughter is now behaving “with impunity” to reap chaos around the world, senior U.K. government sources warn.
British Prime Minister Theresa May revealed on Wednesday that the GRU, Moscow’s shadowy spy network, had plotted the Novichok assault on Sergei Skripal on the orders of the Kremlin to “send a message” to other suspected traitors.
The two senior GRU officers dispatched to carry out the attack were named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov — fake identities given to them by the agency, although the men’s real names are understood to be known to British authorities.
Downing Street vowed to do everything in its power to “dismantle” the GRU and warned of further sanctions and retaliation against Russia, but admitted police were powerless to extradite the men.
Whitehall sources accused the GRU of acting “with a sense of impunity” and of developing an appetite for such brazen operations as the attack on Skripal as well as cyber hacking and the shooting down of the passenger jet MH-17 over Ukraine.
One source branded the GRU as “aggressive and well-funded” and with “direct support of and access to” Vladimir Putin, suggesting the attack was sanctioned by the Russian president. Other authorities accused the GRU of funding private armies in Syria; cyber attacks on the United States; assassinations at home and abroad; and “deniable” military operations around the world.
In a dramatic day of developments, counterterrorism police named the chief suspects as Petrov and Boshirov, both in their 40s, who had flown to Britain under false identities but were using genuine passports issued by the Russian state.
They released a series of CCTV images showing the two GRU officers in Salisbury minutes before Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned with Novichok smeared on their front door handle.
Police revealed a detailed timeline of the 54 hours the men spent in Britain from the moment they touched down at Gatwick Airport on Friday, March 2, to their departure from the U.K. hours after the Skripals collapsed.
It also emerged that the men used an east London hotel as their base during the mission, with traces of the weapons-grade nerve agent found in the hotel room. The Novichok was smuggled into Britain in a perfume bottle, bought in Russia, with the nozzle specially adapted to deliver the poison.
Skripal was convicted in 2006 in Moscow of spying for MI6 but released in a prisoner swap in 2010, resettling in Salisbury. A security source said: “There is a particular keenness among the GRU to get their revenge on traitors.”
The Novichok container was discarded in a trash can by the hitmen and picked up by Charlie Rowley, 45, a local resident who gave it to his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, 44. She died after applying the nerve agent to her wrists. Rowley remains in hospital.
U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service has charged Petrov and Boshirov with a series of offences including the attempted murder of the Skripals and of Det. Sgt. Nick Bailey, who searched their home and later fell ill. But police decided not to request their extradition because it would be futile. Instead, a European Arrest Warrant has been issued which officers hope to enact should the suspects travel to another European nation.
In a parliamentary statement, May said: “It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.”