WHO, US? SKRIPAL SUSPECTS SAY THEY WERE ONLY TOURISTS
▶ Television interview of suspected Russian assassination team ridiculed by security experts
The two men accused of carrying out a nerve agent attack in Britain denied their involvement in the mission and claimed they have no links to the Russian military intelligence service.
The men, who on Thursday identified themselves as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Borishov, told the pro-Kremlin news channel RT they travelled to the southern English town of Salisbury to admire its cathedral and ancient clock.
In a series of clips posted by the news channel, the two men denied allegations laid against them by British authorities and said they had not brought a perfume bottle containing the deadly Russian-manufactured agent Novichok into the country.
Britain rejected the pair’s claims, which they described as “obfuscation and lies”, and maintained the assertion of police and prosecutors that the two men were members of the GRU intelligence agency.
Police last week released a dossier of evidence that they said pointed to the likely involvement of the two men, including CCTV footage from the town, flight records, accommodation details and scientific tests that identified traces of Novichok at a hotel where they stayed.
They said there was enough evidence to prosecute them of conspiring to murder former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a military-grade nerve agent in Salisbury in March, but the government said seeking their extradition from Russia was futile.
Police said they believed the names were aliases – but the two men insisted they were real.
They denied being intelligence operatives.
“To cut a long story short, we are in the fitness industry.”
Security analysts told The National they had anticipated the pair would make a public appearance after comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin this week suggesting they might soon tell their story.
But the analysts said they were surprised at the pair’s failure to come up with a credible alternative story to counter a British police dossier that pointed to their involvement and to muddy the waters, a known Russian military deception tactic known as maskirovka.
“The maskirovka scriptwriter must have had writer’s block,” said Philip Ingram, a former British military intelligence officer. “What we’re seeing here is Putin continuing to play with us because he can.
“Does it affect the credibility of anything for those in the know? The answer to that is no.”
The editor-in-chief of RT, Margarita Simonyan, said the two men had contacted her by phone and she spent an evening with them before clips of the interview were broadcast on Thursday.
RT has a licence to operate in the UK but is under investigation by regulators over its coverage of the Salisbury affair.
Appearing uncomfortable with the questioning, the men claimed they travelled Salisbury as tourists twice, their first trip being hampered by poor weather.
“Our friends had suggested for a long time that we visit this wonderful town,” the men told RT.
“It’s famous for its 123-metre spire, it’s famous for its clock, one of the first ever created in the world that’s still working.”
John Glen, Conservative MP for Salisbury, said the suspects’ accounts were not credible. “Delighted that Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Borishov were able to see the world-class attractions that Salisbury has to offer. But very strange to come all this way for just two days while carrying Novichok in their luggage,” he tweeted.
The Skripals continue to recover at a secret location. Two other people were affected and a woman, Dawn Sturgess, died in July after spraying herself with the nerve agent after discovering the discarded bottle.
The British government said it was “clear these men are officers of the Russian military intelligence service – the GRU – who used a devastatingly toxic, illegal chemical weapon on the streets of our country”.