Fabrications of interview ‘an insult’
LONDON: Britain is accusing Russia of ‘‘lies and blatant fabrications’’ after the prime suspects in the Salisbury nerve agent attack claimed they visited the United Kingdom as tourists.
Two men who identified themselves as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov told Russian statefunded news channel RT they travelled to the city of Salisbury after friends recommended it.
They also said they worked in the fitness industry, not the Russian military, and had been in fear of their lives since Britain outed them as being responsible for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skri pal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in England.
The British Government said the interview was ‘‘deeply offensive to the victims and loved ones of this horrific attack’’.
RT editorinchief Margarita Simonyan later told BBC Newsnight the men had insisted on a series of conditions before agreeing to the oncamera interview, including limiting the scope of the questions. She also said they had agreed to send photos taken during their visit to Salisbury, but their phone no longer appeared to be in use.
During the interview, Petrov said they arrived in London on March 2 and tried to visit Salisbury the following day, but were thwarted by snow and returned the day after.
‘‘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],’’ he said.
The men denied carrying women’s perfume, after police discovered a counterfeit bottle that contained a ‘‘significant amount’’ of Novichok, and denied knowing where the Skripals lived.
Tests on the east London hotel room where they had stayed showed contamination of Novichok.
Scotland
Yard believes the pair were using aliases after the men claimed Petrov and Boshirov were their real names.
‘‘The lies and blatant fabrications in this interview given to a Russianstate sponsored TV station are an insult to the public’s intelligence,’’ a spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May spokesman said.
‘‘More importantly, they are deeply offensive to the victims and 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 . . . Russia has responded with contempt.’’
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the men had been discounted as members of his security network. In an address in Vladivostok, he said: ‘‘Of course, we looked who these people are. We know who they are, we have found them already.
‘‘There is nothing special and nothing criminal about it, I’m telling you.’’ — BPA