SKRIPAL SUSPECTS DENY MURDER ATTEMPT

MOSCOW: Two men accused by London of poisoning former Moscow spy Sergei Skripal denied involvement in the murder attempt in a bizarre Russian media interview on Thursday (Friday in Manila) that Britain dismissed as “an insult to the public’s intelligence.” Speaking with the head of the Kremlin-backed RT news network, the pair confirmed they were the men whose pictures British authorities released this month, but insisted they were visiting the English city of Salisbury as tourists. British security services had named the men as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, but said these were likely to be aliases. In a 25-minute interview, the men said these were their real names but insisted they did not work for Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, as Britain claims. RT said the men sounded distressed and were sweating as they spoke. Both appeared to be about 40 years old, and they wore almost identical dark blue jumpers. The TV station recorded the interview on Wednesday evening, just hours after President Vladimir Putin said Russia had identified the men sought by Britain and urged the pair to address the media. The United States is planning a new set of “very severe” sanctions on Russia over its alleged use of the Novichok nerve agent in the March 4 poisoning of Skripal and his daughter Yulia, assistant Secretary of State Manisha Singh told a congressional hearing on Thursday. She said Russia had until November to allow on-site inspections of facilities linked to the potent poison, and to provide “verifiable” assurances that Novichok will not be used again.