UK charges two Russians over former spy poisoning

Bloomberg

The UK charged two Russian nationals over the attempted murder of a former spy and the use of a Novichok nerve agent on British soil, a move that will further sour ties with the Kremlin.
Police named Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as the aliases of the two key suspects in the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English town of Salisbury in March. British and European arrest warrants have been issued for the pair, though the government will not seek extradition as Russia’s constitution forbids it.
The UK’s counter-terrorism police chief, Neil Basu, told reporters in London on Wednesday the two Russians entered the UK on an Aeroflot flight on March 2, departing on March 4. They used a counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle to transport the weapons-grade poison.
They stayed in London while visiting the UK, Basu said, urging anyone who had also visited the CityStay Hotel in Bow Road to contact them. They travelled by train to Salisbury. There is no risk to members of the public who traveled on the same flights, trains or stayed in the same room, he said.
Relations between the UK and Russia, already frosty, were plunged into crisis over the incident, and Britain persuaded allies around the world to conduct coordinated expulsions of more than 150 Russian diplomats, prompting tit-for-tat retaliation from Moscow. Basu said he is working on significant lines of inquiry that the pair were agents from the Russian secret services. They had visited Britain several times before the attack, he said. He said he is looking into whether the Russian state may have issued the passports, but needs firm evidence.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the names and photos released on Wednesday don’t mean anything and called on the UK Authorities to provide evidence for their allegations to Russian law enforcement, according to Tass news agency.
“We again call on the British side to shift from public accusations and informational manipulation to practical cooperation between law-enforcement agencies,” Tass quoted her as saying.
Police released multiple CCTV images of the pair in their forties, appealing to witnesses to come forward with more information about their real identities and movements.

May says nerve attackers were Russian military spies
Bloomberg

Prime Minister Theresa May said the UK has intelligence that “almost certainly” shows that the Kremlin authorised the attempted murder of a former spy and the use of a Novichok nerve agent on British soil. May told lawmakers on Wednesday that two Russian nationals charged earlier over the attack are agents in the country’s GRU, its military foreign intelligence service.
“The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command. So this was not a rogue operation,” she said. “It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.”
“This was a sickening and despicable act, it left four people fighting for their lives and one innocent woman dead,” May said in Parliament. “We have repeatedly asked Russia to account for what happened and they have replied with obfuscation and lies.”