Russian agency behind poison attack ‘is acting with impunity’
Two men charged over Novichok plot are part of secretive GRU squad, says May Suspects caught on CCTV as they carried out Salisbury atrocity in broad daylight Shadowy spy network is causing chaos around the world, warn Whitehall sources
A RUSSIAN military intelligence squad behind the Salisbury Novichok attack is now behaving “with impunity” to reap chaos around the world, senior Whitehall sources warned last night.
Theresa May yesterday revealed that the GRU, Moscow’s shadowy spy network, had plotted the nerve agent assault on Sergei Skripal on the orders of the Kremlin to “send a message” to other suspected traitors.
The two senior GRU officers dispatched to carry out the attack were named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – fake identities given to them by the agency, although the men’s real names are understood to be known to British authorities.
Downing Street vowed to do everything in its power to “dismantle” the GRU and warned of further sanctions. Sources suggested retaliation could include cyber attacks, espionage and travel bans against individuals. However, No 10 admitted police were powerless to secure the men’s extradition.
Whitehall sources accused the GRU of acting “with a sense of impunity” and of developing an appetite for brazen operations such as the attack on Col Skripal as well as cyber hacking and the shooting down of the passenger jet MH-17 over Ukraine.
The source said: “The Kremlin must be made to feel it cannot act with impunity. Russia must see that there is a price attached to what they do.”
The source branded the GRU “aggressive and well funded” and with “direct support of and access to” Vladimir Putin, suggesting the attack was sanctioned by the Russian president. Other authorities accused the GRU of funding private armies in Syria; cyber attacks on the US; assassinations at home and abroad; and “deniable” military operations around the world.
In a dramatic day of developments, counter-terrorism police named the chief suspects as Petrov and Boshirov, both in their 40s, who flew to Britain on false identities but using genuine passports issued by the Russian state.
Police released a series of CCTV im- ages showing the two men in Salisbury minutes before Col Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned with Novichok smeared on their front door handle. Police revealed a detailed time- line of the 54 hours the men spent in Britain, from the moment they touched down at Gatwick on Friday, March 2, to their departure from the UK hours after the Skripals had collapsed in Wiltshire.
It also emerged that the men used a £49-a-night east London hotel as their base during the mission, with traces of the weapons-grade nerve agent found in their hotel room. The Novichok was smuggled into Britain in a fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle, bought in Russia, with the nozzle specially adapted to deliver the poison.
Col Skripal was convicted in 2006 in Moscow of spying for MI6 but released in a prisoner swap in 2010, resettling in Salisbury. A security source said: “There is a particular keenness among the GRU to get their revenge on traitors.”
The Novichok container was discarded in a bin by the hitmen and picked up by Charlie Rowley, 45, a local who gave it to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, 44. She died after applying the nerve agent to her wrists.
Mr Rowley, who remains in hospital, told ITV News: “It is progress to see the suspects identified in the Skripal case. But we need to make sure that these people are also held accountable for Dawn’s murder.”
The Crown Prosecution Service has charged Petrov and Boshirov with a series of offences including the attempted murder of the Skripals and of Det Sgt Nick Bailey, who searched their home and later fell ill. But police decided not to request their extradition because it would be futile. Instead, a European Arrest Warrant has been issued, which officers hope to enact should the suspects ever leave their homeland and travel to another European nation.
One ministerial source said it would require regime change and the overthrow of Putin for Petrov and Boshirov and those who ordered the assassination to face trial in the UK.
In a parliamentary statement less than two hours after police named the
suspects, Mrs May insisted intelligence had shown the suspects were acting under orders of the GRU. The accusation drew gasps from MPS in the chamber.
Mrs May said: “The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a wellestablished chain of command, so this was not a rogue operation.
“It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.”
Asked about the motive – Col Skripal had been caught spying for Britain – Mrs May said: “I suspect they wanted to give a message to those Russians who were living elsewhere who had been involved in matters relating to the Russian state, and that is the only reason I can assume that lay behind what they wanted to do.”
She said the GRU posed a “threat to all our allies and to all our citizens” and warned Russia it could no longer “act with impunity”.
The two agents came to the UK on legitimate visas issued by the British embassy in Moscow. It is understood the GRU created back stories for the men, who would have needed to produce bank accounts and employers’ letters to obtain visas.
Neil Basu, the Metropolitan Police’s deputy assistant commissioner overseeing the inquiry, said the men “had travelled extensively in the past under these aliases”.
A Russian news agency last night claimed the passports were issued in 2016 and that Petrov had used his to travel to London in 2017. The men had also flown to Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan and Paris using the documents before their trip to Salisbury.
After her Commons statement, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We have exposed the role of the GRU in the despicable attack that took place in Salisbury. We have exposed their operatives and the methods they used. We are sharing the information with our allies and we will step up our efforts to disrupt and dismantle their networks.”
Mrs May spoke to Donald Trump, the US president, prior to the police announcement. She will address the UN Security Council today. EU nations are said to be sympathetic to calls for new sanctions against Moscow.