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LONDON – Two Russian intelligence agents in March attacked the nerve agent against a former Russian spy living in Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday, accusing the men of attempted murder. an international tumult.
British counterterrorism police said at a press conference on Wednesday that she had traced in detail suspects' movements, captured images of security cameras, identified a hotel in London where men remained and even found traces of nerve agents. their room.
Addressing Parliament soon after, Ms. May said that along with the police investigation, the British intelligence services had conducted their own investigation and concluded that the two men were "intelligence agents" Russian military also known as GRU
It has linked the attacks of nerve agents with a long series of Russian movements denounced by the West, including the seizure of Crimea, incursions into eastern Ukraine, the destruction of an airliner in Ukrainian airspace and a coup attempt in Montenegro.
The allegation of G.R.U. participation in the use of the nerve agent, known as Novichok, adds to the increased tensions between Moscow and the West, which have led to mutual expulsions of hundreds of embassy diplomats and employees, and sanctions against Russia.
The authorities issued national and European arrest warrants against the two men, identified as being Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, and published photographs of them. The men traveled with valid Russian passports on these names, police said, adding that they believed the names were pseudonyms.
"We understand that they have traveled a great deal in the past under these pseudonyms," said Neil Basu, senior British counterterrorism police chief. "We have significant research leads on who they can be."
The information published Wednesday clearly shows that investigators knew the names of men, their movements and contamination of their hotel room for months without saying it publicly. On Wednesday, they asked for help from the public to fill the gaps about what men did and when.
"The names and photos published in the media mean nothing to us," Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Wednesday. "We once again urge the United Kingdom to move from public accusations and informative manipulations to the practical interaction between law enforcement agencies."
The charges do not relate to the poisoning of two British – Dawn Sturgess, deceased, and Charlie Rowley – although investigators believe the events are related. Both Sturgess and Rowley fell months after the attack on the Skripals, when they found the perfume bottle that, according to investigators, was used to carry the nerve agent.
"The same two men are now the main suspects in the Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley case," said Ms. May, adding that the same poison was used in both cases and that both were "victims of the". indiscriminate elimination of this agent ". . "
Prosecutors have not requested the extradition of Russian men, who do not send their nationals abroad. Basu said he was hoping for an arrest, "it seems very unlikely that we are coming to this point."
The images published by the police show how easily the attack could have escaped detection. The suspects seem perfectly ordinary, walking in winter in jeans and parkas. Police published photos of a counterfeit bottle for a perfume, Nina Ricci's First Day, and a pearly pink box that contained it. According to them, the attackers had carried the nerve agent – a container so harmless that Mr. Basu called it "the perfect delivery method. "
Ms. May said, "The way the bottle was changed is no doubt, it was a blanket for the smuggling of a weapon into the country."
According to British government scientists and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international agency responsible for ensuring compliance with the global chemical weapons treaty, the five victims were all poisoned by Novichok, a class of agents neurotoxic drugs developed by Soviet and Russian scientists.
Britain won the support from its Western allies to conclude that Moscow was behind the attack, triggering the latest in a series of diplomatic violations between the Kremlin and the West.
After the Skripals attacked Salisbury, a cathedral town in southwest London, Western countries imposed new economic sanctions and expelled about 150 Russian diplomats and other officials, many of whom were presumably intelligence agents. Russia reacted by expelling a similar number of officials from these countries.
Basu said the suspects were only briefly in Britain from Moscow on March 2, staying two nights at the City Stay Hotel on Bow Road in East London and returning to Moscow on March 4. A budget hotel, with a stain of artificial turf in front, is next to a train station.
After tracing the men's movements towards the hotel and determining the room in which they had remained, Mr. Basu stated that the investigators examined the room on May 4 and that "two swabs had revealed a lower Novichok contamination than public health ".
People living and working in the area said they were dismayed that they had not heard of the contamination earlier. "It's a little shocking that they've waited until now, but I guess there's a lot going on behind the scenes that I do not know about," said Andreia Paim, 24, a student living near the hotel.
The men took a train to Salisbury on March 3, Basu said, adding that the trip "was meant for recognition of the Salisbury area." He said he returned the next day to poison. Police said the CCTV footage showed the men near Mr. Skripal's house, but not at his home.
Mr Skripal reportedly was the main target of the attack – apparently the latest in a long line of people who disagree with the government of President Vladimir V. Putin victims of assassinations or attempts, in Russia and abroad.
Perhaps most famous, Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former Russian spy turned critical of Putin, was fatally poisoned in London with a radioactive element, polonium 210 – an attack according to which a British investigation has declared that the Russian president approved."
Russia jailed Mr Skripal in 2004 for selling secrets to Britain and released him in 2010 as part of a spy ring with Western countries. He moved to Salisbury but quietly continued to work in intelligence, offering insights into Russian espionage practices.
On March 4, the Skripals became seriously ill with what was diagnosed a few days later as nerve agent intoxication, resulting in blockage of parts of Salisbury and terrifying residents. Doctors They did not expect that they would survive, but the Skripals, who were deemed unresponsive in a Salisbury Park, were released from a local hospital after weeks of treatment.
The investigators concluded that the poison had been applied at the door of Mr. Skripal's house in Salisbury; his daughter, Yulia, who came from Russia, was perhaps an involuntary victim. A police officer who participated in the initial investigation was made sick by the same substance but recovered.
On June 30, two Britons were poisoned with what the investigators said was the same neurological agent – Mrs. Sturgess, who lived in Salisbury, and her boyfriend, Mr. Rowley, who lived nearby, in Amesbury. Ms. Sturgess died eight days later, turning the investigation into a murder case.
Once again, Salisbury was upset by the search for further contamination, causing a new wave of fear among locals, who complained that the relative safety assurances of public servants made no sense.
Mr. Rowley testified that she and Ms. Sturgess became ill after handling the perfume bottle he had found. Authorities said the bottle contained the toxin and that it had apparently been thrown away by the person or persons who led the attack against the Skripals.
Sophia Kishkovsky contributed to the report from Moscow and Iliana Magra from London.
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