Putin insists that Salisbury poison suspects are ‘civilians’
VLADIMIR Putin has said Russia has identified the two men suspected of poisoning a former Russian spy in Britain, saying he hopes they will come forward and tell the world their story.
The Russian president said the pair named by UK prosecutors over the attempted murders of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, with Novichok in Salisbury are “civilians”.
Theresa May, the British prime minister, last week told MPs that Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are officers of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, but Mr Putin said yesterday: “We of course checked who these people are. We know who they are, we found them.
“Well, I hope they will come out themselves and speak about themselves. It will be better for everyone. There’s nothing particularly even criminal about it, I assure you.”
Responding to the claim they are GRU members, he added: “They are civilians, of course. I would like to appeal to them so that they hear us. They will come somewhere, to you, the mass media.”
In a statement that deepened the diplomatic crisis between the two countries, Mrs May told MPs last week: “This was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.”
The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service now faces a battle to bring the case as Russia does not allow the extradition of its own nationals. A European arrest warrant for the pair – who police think were travelling under aliases and are back in Russia – has been obtained.
Scotland Yard said the military-grade nerve agent was brought into the UK in a fake bottle of Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume, adapted as a poison applicator.
Detectives believe the front door of Mr Skripal’s Salisbury home was contaminated with the substance in March and said CCTV shows the two suspects in the vicinity of the property on that date.
It is believed it was later found by Charlie Rowley before he and his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, became indirect casualties of the poisoning. Ms Sturgess died just over a week later.