POISON? IT WASN’T US, HONEST!
The Novichok murder suspects deny being behind attack during bizarre interview on Russian state television
TWO suspected Kremlin assassins were ridiculed yesterday after claiming to have been ordinary tourists desperate to see the Salisbury Cathedral’s magnificent ‘123-metre spire’.
The burly pair admitted they were in the English city on the day Sergei Skripal was poisoned, but insisted they only went to visit its ‘famous cathedral’ and nearby Stonehenge.
Their unlikely story was branded ‘lies and blatant fabrication’ by British prime minister Theresa May last night, who said it ‘insulted the public’s intelligence’ and was deeply offensive to the victims of the chemical attack. UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt added: ‘The last time Russian military claimed to be on holiday was when they invaded Ukraine in 2014.’
The men broke cover eight days after their mugshots were issued by Scotland Yard – which has accused them of attempted murder – and the UK parliament was told they were intelligence agents from Russia’s feared GRU.
The men told Kremlin-funded state broadcaster Russia Today yesterday they had been on a two-day holiday to Salisbury.
In the stage-managed interview, they admitted they ‘maybe’ ended up at former double agent Mr Skripal’s suburban home by accident while looking for the cathedral, which has a 123-metre spire and is a 25-minute walk in the opposite direction.
They insisted their real names were Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. Scotland Yard says these are the aliases the GRU hitmen used to travel to Britain on March 2 for their assassination mission.
They were interviewed on camera for 25 minutes by RT’s editor-inchief, who says she offered them cognac to quell their nerves.
The men claimed their lives had been ‘turned upside down’ since being named as suspects.
But the interview shed no light on their backgrounds and they were not asked to explain why traces of novichok were found in their east London hotel room – 204km from the Skripals’ home.
Instead, to global mockery, they told how they flew to Britain because friends had urged them to visit ‘wonderful’ Salisbury.
In praising their destination, Boshirov sounded like he was reciting a Wikipedia page, stating: ‘It’s famous for its 123-metre spire. It’s famous for its clock. It’s the oldest working clock in the world.’
A body-language expert said the men appeared to be reciting ‘guide book monologues’ about Salisbury.
Even prominent Russians were openly ridiculing the pair’s insistence they were not trained killers.
In London, Mrs May was scathing of Moscow’s ‘contempt’ for the novichok episode, which nearly killed Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, but claimed the life of Dawn Sturgess, 44, whose partner Charlie Rowley, 45, had unwittingly found and gave her the fake bottle of perfume used to carry the nerve agent.
Anti-terror police are understood to ‘stand by everything’ they have said about the two suspects. Intelligence officers know the men’s real names, and sources said they concluded they were GRU hitmen based on solid intelligence which has not been made public.
Mrs May said: ‘The lies and blatant fabrications in this interview… are an insult to the public’s intelligence. More importantly, they are deeply offensive to the victims and
‘We’re afraid of going out’
loved ones of this horrific attack. Sadly, it is what we have come to expect. An illegal chemical weapon has been used on the streets of this country. We have seen four people left seriously ill in hospital and an innocent woman has died. Russia has responded with contempt.’ As British relations with Moscow worsened, the Russian embassy in the UK claimed its diplomats had been ‘banned’ from attending a Conservative Party event for the first time.
British ministers say Vladimir Putin personally ordered the assassination attempt, but the Russian president has denied all involvement.
In their interview, Petrov and Boshirov told RT they fear the British secret service has a ‘bounty on our heads’.
Boshirov denied the Kremlin had forced them to speak out, and said: ‘We’re afraid of going out, we fear for ourselves, our lives and lives of our loved ones.’ They described themselves as ‘decent lads’ working in the ‘sports nutrition business’.
They said they went to Salisbury twice in two days to try to get to Stonehenge but were thwarted each time by snow. They said they got ‘drenched’ and ‘freezing’ and on both days stayed for a short period, before heading back to London on the train.
Boshirov confessed: ‘Maybe we
did [approach] Skripal’s house, but we don’t know where it was located.’
Police say the hitmen went on Saturday, March 3 as a dry run before the murder attempt on the Sunday, and travelled back to Heathrow and a flight to Moscow that evening.
In Moscow, Sergey Dorenko, of Govorit Moskva radio, said he was ashamed at the ‘clumsy’ interview.
Journalist Oleg Kashin said it had the opposite effect to what Mr Putin had hoped for – and amounted to a ‘confession’ that Britain was right.