British Police: Russians Smuggled Deadly Nerve Agent in Perfume Bottle, Killing 2
The latest on the charges filed Wednesday in connection with the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain (all times local):
12 p.m.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman says Moscow has no knowledge of the suspects named in the poisoning of a former Russian agent in Britain.
British prosecutors on Wednesday charged two Russian men with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia earlier this year. Police say the men flew from Moscow to London two days before the Skripals were poisoned on Russian passports, but the names the two used were aliases.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says the names of the men and their photos “say nothing to us.”
Zakharova called on Britain to cooperate with Russian law enforcement agencies on the investigation. She has criticized London for turning down Moscow’s request to see the case files.
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11:40 a.m.
The Kremlin is denying that it played a role in the poisoning of a former Russian spy in a British city, saying that Britain is not sharing any intelligence with it.
British prosecutors on Wednesday charged two Russian men with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia earlier this year. The prosecutors said the U.K. is not asking Moscow to extradite the men because Russian law forbids extradition of the country’s citizens.
Police say the men, both about 40, flew from Moscow to London two days before the Skripals were poisoned on March 4.
Speaking ahead of the announcement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday denied any Russian role in the poisoning, saying that Russia has no new information about it because Britain has refused to share case files.
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11:30 a.m.
Police say they believe the nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter was smuggled to Britain in a counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle and applied to the front door of Skripal’s house.
More than three months later, the bottle was found by a local man, Charlie Rowley. He was hospitalized and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to the contents.
Police are still trying to determine where the bottle was between the Skripal poisoning in March and its discovery by Rowley on June 27.
As a result, he said, police are not yet ready to bring charges in the second poisoning.
Assistant police commissioner Neil Basu would not say whether police believe the suspects worked for Russian security services but, he said, “This was a sophisticated attack across borders.”
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11 a.m.
British prosecutors have charged two Russian men with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury.
The Crown Prosecution Service says Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok.
Prosecutor Sue Hemming said Wednesday that the U.K. is not asking Moscow to extradite the men because Russian law forbids extradition of the country’s citizens.
Police say the men, both about 40, flew from Moscow to London on Russian passports two days before the Skripals were poisoned on March 4.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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