Russian suspects in poisoning: We were tourists in U.K.

In this video grab provided by the RT channel, Ruslan Boshirov, left, and Alexander Petrov attend their first public appearance in an interview with the Kremlin-funded RT channel in Moscow Thursday.

The two Russian men spun an unlikely tale of hapless tourists defeated by grim British weather: They travelled more than 1,000 miles to see England’s famed Salisbury Cathedral but were turned back by slush and snow, then returned the next day and spent two hours exploring the “beautiful” city.

British officials had a more sinister explanation: Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were highly trained military intelligence agents sent by the Kremlin to Salisbury to smear a deadly nerve agent on the front door of a former Russian spy.

Petrov and Boshirov, both charged in absentia by Britain last week for trying to kill Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, with the nerve agent Novichok, went on the Kremlin-funded RT satellite channel Thursday to proclaim their innocence, deny they were agents of the military intelligence service widely known as the GRU, and say they were merely tourists in the city southwest of London.

“Our friends had been suggesting for quite a long time that we visit this wonderful city,” Petrov said in the interview.

“They have a famous cathedral there,” Boshirov said, adding studiously: “It is famous for its 123meter spire.”

James Slack, spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May, derided their claims as “lies and blatant fabrications.”

“More importantly, they are deeply offensive to the victims and loved ones of this horrific attack,” he said.

Britain said the attack was almost certainly approved “at a senior level of the Russian state,” an allegation that Moscow has vehemently denied.

Skripal, a Russian military intelligence officer turned double agent for Britain, and his visiting daughter fell ill March 4 from what Britain says was a Sovietdeveloped nerve agent; an investigating police officer also was hospitalized for about three weeks.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee brushed aside a flurry of Democratic attempts to delay the consideration of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday, sticking with a schedule that could see him confirmed by Oct. 1.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut protested as soon as the hearing gaveled opened Thursday. He says the nomination will be “tainted” and “stained” by the unusual process for vetting the nominee.

“We lack the time. We lack the documents.” He called it a “badly broken process.”

The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, sought a subpoena for documents from Kavanaugh’s time as Bush’s staff secretary.

She said Thursday senators “should be able to see this record” and wondered, “What in Judge Kavanaugh’s records are Republicans hiding?”

The Republicans have declined to pursue Kavanaugh’s staff secretary documents, saying it would be too cumbersome. They rejected Feinstein’s motion and several others, including motions to subpoena documents and witnesses and a motion to adjourn.

Chairman Chuck Grassley set the panel’s vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee for Sept. 20. Republicans hope to confirm Kavanaugh by the start of the new court session Oct. 1. New documents released ahead of Thursday’s hearing included Kavanaugh’s 263-page written response to questions from senators, along with dozens of files from the judge’s Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee markup meeting on Capitol Hill, Thursday in Washington.

work in the George W. Bush White House that had been available to senators only on a “committee confidential basis.” Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey made the Bush documents public.

In new written responses released late Wednesday, Kavanaugh says he would have shaken the hand of a school shooting victim’s father during a break in last week’s Senate hearing had he recognized him before being whisked away by security detail. Kavanaugh’s explanation for the encounter with Fred Guttenberg — captured in an Associated Press photo that went viral on social media — was among a 263-page response to written questions from senators on a range of issues including abortion, executive power and his personal finances.

Kavanaugh wrote that he assumed the man who approached him, introduced himself, “and touched my arm” during a break at the Senate Judiciary Committee proceedings had been one of the many protesters in the hearing room.