[ad_1]
-
DOSSIER In this file, extracted from CCTV and published by the Metropolitan Police in London on Wednesday, September 5, 2018, Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov march on Fisherton Road, Salisbury, England, on March 4, 2018. President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday: The September 12, 2018, Russia has identified the two men that Britain has named suspects in the poisoning of a former Russian spy, and that there is "nothing criminal" " About them. (Metropolitan Police via AP, file) lessFILE In this file, extracted from CCTV and broadcast by the Metropolitan Police in London on Wednesday, September 5, 2018, Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov are walking on Fisherton Road, Salisbury, England, on March 4 … more
Photo: Metropolitan Police, AP
Photo: Metropolitan Police, AP
MOSCOW (AP) – The two Russian men accused in Britain of poisoning a former Russian spy with a nerve agent appeared on Russian television on Thursday.
Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov made their first public appearance in an interview with the Kremlin-funded RT channel.
The men said that they had visited the city of Salisbury, in southern England, in March, calling it a "wonderful city" and saying they wanted to see the famous Salisbury Cathedral. .
"Our friends have long suggested that we visit this wonderful city," said Petrov, adding that Boshirov wanted to see the famous spire and clock of the cathedral.
Last week, Britain accused Boshirov and Petrov of being agents of the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU, sent to Salisbury to poison former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
British police broadcast CCTV images and photos showing the two men walking in the Skripal district on March 4, the day of the attack. Britain said the attack was almost certainly approved "at a higher level of the Russian state", an allegation that Moscow vigorously rejected.
Responding to the interviewer's question, why did the two men travel to Salisbury two days in a row, Boshirov said that the first time they arrived in town, it was snowing and they were wet so they decided to take the train back.
They said that they might have passed by Skripal's house but that they did not know him.
The surprise appearance of the men Thursday came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian authorities knew the identity of the two men, but insisted that they were civilians. He asked them to contact the media.
Putin's claims were rejected on Wednesday by James Slack, spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May, who called the GRU officers "users of a devastating illegal chemical weapon in the streets of our country."
"We have repeatedly asked Russia to report what happened in Salisbury in March and they responded with obscurations and lies," Slack said. "I have not seen anything that suggests it has changed."
