Javid says deadly toxin order came from top

THE ORDER to carry out the Salisbury nerve agent attack came from the “highest level” of the Russian state, the Home Secretary has claimed.

Sajid Javid stopped short of naming Vladimir Putin as the man who authorised the Novichok poisoning by the military intelligence service GRU, but said “we all know what’s at the top of the Russian government”.

Although the suspects had been identified as GRU agents Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov and arrest warrants had been issued, “the reality is we will probably never see them in the UK” because they were unlikely to leave Russia again, Mr Javid acknowledged.

Prime Minister Theresa May has previously said the attack was “almost certainly” approved at a “senior level” of the Russian state, while Security Minister Ben Wallace said Mr Putin bore ultimate responsibility as head of the government in Moscow. Mr Javid told the BBC’s Andrew

Marr Show yesterday that the GRU operated on a “very short leash from the Kremlin” and was “getting its instructions directly from the highest levels of the Russian government”.

He said of the “sickening and despicable” attack: “Unequivocally, crystal clear, this was the act of the Russian state, two Russian nationals sent to Britain with the sole purpose of carrying out a reckless assassination attempt.”

The Home Secretary said the UK had “considerable powers” to respond to Russia. We will bring all those powers, both overt and covert, to bear on Russia and what it represents today.”

Former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia

were left critically ill after being exposed to the military grade nerve agent Novichok in March. Detectives believe the front door of Mr Skripal’s Salisbury home was contaminated with the substance on March 4.

Mr Skripal, 67, and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury city centre the same day and spent weeks in hospital.

A cordon remains around the house so police investigations and clean-up work can be carried out safely and will remain in place until the decontamination has been completed.

Russia has faced a wave of international condemnation over the Salisbury incident as it claimed Britain was lying about the developments in the case.

In an emergency debate at the United Nations, Moscow was accused of “playing dice” with the lives of people living in the Wiltshire city by the UK. The US warned the world should be “chilled to the bone” by the developments in recent days.

GCHQ head Jeremy Fleming warned that Russia poses an “active” threat during a speech in Washington. He called on the international community to reject the Kremlin’s “brazen determination to undermine the international rules-based order”.

But Russia claimed the UK was trying to unleash anti-Russian hysteria during talks at the UN.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday it wants to identify and find the suspects involved in the poisoning of Mr Skripal and his daughter.

Officers have formally linked the attack on the Skripals to events in nearby Amesbury when Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, were exposed to the same nerve agent. Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July, just over a week after the pair fell ill.