Kremlin will ‘consider’ request by UK to question Salisbury suspects

THE Kremlin has said it will consider any request by Britain to question the two suspects in the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

The UK has accused the two Russian men, who appeared on Russian television on Thursday, of the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any request from London to interview them would be considered in “strict accordance with the law” but so far the British had rejected any offer to co-operate in the investigation, the Tass news agency reported.

“Only this week, we heard an official statement from London, which said that they did not plan to employ the legal assistance mechanism and send any requests to Russia.

“It is London’s official stance and we regret to say that it is impossible to make any assump- tions, unfortunately,” Mr Peskov said.

“In case we receive an official request from London, it will definitely be considered in strict accordance with the law, there is no doubt about that.”

In their RT television interview, the two men, who gave their names as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, said they had visited Salisbury as tourists and had nothing to do with the attack on the Skripals.

Their claims were dismissed by Downing Street as “lies and blatant fabrications”.

Britain has said the two men are officers in Russian military intelligence — the GRU — who travelled to the UK under false names.

Ministers have made clear they have little expectation of being able to extradite them from Russia to stand trial in the UK.

However, the Government has warned that if they ever leave the country again they will be arrested and brought to Britain to face

Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov filmed on Fisherton Road, Salisbury

justice. “They are wanted men and we have taken steps to ensure that they are apprehended and brought to justice in the UK if they ever again set foot outside Russia,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Thursday.

The Foreign Office declined to comment on Mr Peskov’s comments.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan

Police, which is leading the inquiry, said: “The investigation remains ongoing and it would therefore be inappropriate to discuss specific lines of inquiry.”

The two men were widely ridiculed after they claimed they had been to Salisbury to visit the city’s cathedral, “famous for its 123-metre spire”.

The pair claimed they have been left fearing for their lives after Britain pointed to their involvement and said they were officers in Russian military intelligence service the GRU.

In a translation, the broadcaster quoted Petrov as saying: “Well, we came there on March 2, then went to a railway station to see the timetable.

“We arrived in Salisbury on March 3 and tried to walk through the town, but we lasted for only half an hour because it was covered in snow.

“Of course, we went there to see Stonehenge, Old Sarum, but we couldn’t do it because there was muddy slush everywhere. The town was covered by this slush. We got wet, took the nearest train and came back (to London).”

UK authorities believe the pair smeared the highly toxic chemical Novichok on a door handle at the Wiltshire home of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal, leaving Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia critically ill.