Two more Russians suspected of involvement in UK poisoning: report

The total number of suspects in the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English town of Salisbury in March last year is now five, the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper has reported.

The newly identified pair posed as tourists to obtain a British visa last March, the Daily Mail said on its website, citing senior security sources it did not name.

The two men are now thought to be back in Russia, the newspaper reported.

Two Russian nationals, identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov and thought to be military intelligence officers, were in September named as suspects in the attempted poisoning.

A third Russian suspect was later named as a military intelligence officer who carried out a reconnaissance mission before the attack on Skripal and his daughter, according to Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper.

The third suspect has been identified by investigators as Sergey Fedotov, according to the dailymail.co.uk website.

Skripal, a former Russian intelligence agent convicted of spying for Britain, and his daughter Yulia were left fighting for their lives after they were exposed to the deadly Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, a picturesque city near the famous ancient ruins of Stonehenge on March 5 last year.

In response to the incident, London in March expelled 23 Russian diplomats believed to be intelligence agents.

Poland expelled four Russian diplomats as part of a coordinated international response to the suspected nerve agent attack in Salisbury.

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said at the time that Britain had been targeted in an "unprecedented attack which was the first deliberate use of chemical weapons against a group of civilians in Europe in the history of post-war Europe.”

Moscow has denied allegations of Russian involvement.

(gs/pk)

Source: dailymail.co.uk