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Reuters
President Putin has maintained the suspects in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal are civilians
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the "traitor" and the "fool" of the former Russian spy poisoned Sergei Skripal.
In a speech, he complained that the media treated Mr. Skripal as "a kind of human rights defender", insisting that he had betrayed his country.
Mr Skripal and his daughter survived an attack in Salisbury which, according to the United Kingdom, was perpetrated by two Russian military intelligence agents.
But a British woman died in another poisoning related to the police.
UK authorities believe that Mr Skripal 's door in the southern city of England has been targeted by the Novichok nerve agent.
It was sprayed from a modified perfume bottle that was then picked up and donated to Dawn Sturgess, who died in July, they said.
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Last month, President Putin insisted that the suspects named by the British police were civilians and not criminals, and urged them to come forward. They then gave a TV interview.
He said on Wednesday that he thought that the entire "information campaign" around the former Russian spy who had visited the UK had been "broke up" and that he was "deadly". she would pass, "the sooner the better".
Who is Sergei Skripal?
Mr. Skripal is a former Russian intelligence officer. He was arrested in 2004 and sued for "high treason in the form of espionage" by a Moscow military court.
The authorities accused him of being a double agent sharing state secrets with British MI6.
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Unknown / Reuters
Mr Skripal has been living in the United Kingdom since his release as part of a prisoner exchange.
He confessed and cooperated in the trial. He was then imprisoned for 13 years. He was pardoned in 2010 and released in connection with an exchange of prisoners.
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"I see that some of our colleagues support the argument that Mr. Skripal was almost a kind of human rights defender," Putin said on Wednesday.
The Russian leader, a former intelligence officer himself, later described Mr Skripal as a "traitor to the mother country".
"It's just a jerk, that's all."
Who poisoned Mr. Skripal?
The United Kingdom said that two Russian nationals who had traveled under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov had tried to kill the former spy and his daughter Yulia.
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The two suspects gave a television interview in Russia in which they claimed to be "mere tourists" traveling to the city of Salisbury because of their interest in its 123 m (400 ft) spire.
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However, their story was widely ridiculed in Russia and the UK, and one of the men was later identified on an investigative website as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, an intelligence officer. Russian military GRU.
What Putin has already said
BBC monitoring
A couple of days after the poisoning, President Putin said any suggestion of Russia's involvement was "utter nonsense," and said "unthinkable that anyone in Russia would do such a thing before the presidential election. and the FIFA World Cup ".
In May, Putin denied that Skripal was poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent, saying he would have died "on the scene" if that were the case. "A military toxic agent is so powerful that it instantly kills a person," added the president.
He then denied that Russia had chemical agents: "We destroyed all our chemical weapons".
After the release of Sergei Skripal's hospital later in May, Mr. Putin seemed pleased.
"God bless his health, we are very happy," said the president at a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "Thank God, he's healed … and I hope he's healthy."
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Bellingcat / PA
The Bellingcat website has published a photo of the man who, it is said, calls Anatoliy Chepiga (left), while Russia Today named Ruslan Boshirov (right).
The Bellingcat website revealed that President Chepiga was named "Hero of the Russian Federation" by President Putin in 2014.
Addressing to the BBC, a woman from the city where Chepiga grew up later identified the Salisbury suspect as the intelligence officer.
On Wednesday, Putin rejected the allegation that Russia was responsible for Sturgess's death.
"Sometimes I'm amazed by what's going on around this case, so some guys came to Britain and started to poison the homeless? What nonsense!" he said.
