LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday that two Russian spies carried out a nerve agent attack on a former colleague on British soil, as prosecutors issued a warrant for the suspects’ arrest.
Prosecutors announced charges against Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov for trying to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in the city of Salisbury on 4th March.
May told MPs the pair “are officers of the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU” — adding the attack had been sanctioned from higher up.
“This was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state,” she said.
London and its allies had previously blamed Moscow for the attack, which Russia angrily denied.
The row sparked a wave of diplomatic expulsions on both sides, as well as fresh US sanctions against Moscow.
A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said Wednesday it had no knowledge of Petrov or Boshirov and accused London of “manipulating information”.
“We once again call on the British side to switch from public accusations and manipulating information to practical cooperation through law enforcement agencies,” Russian news agencies quoted spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
The US ambassador to London, Woody Johnson, tweeted: “The US and UK stand firmly together in holding Russia accountable for its act of aggression on UK soil.”
Britain requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council, expected on Thursday, to update members on the situation.
The Foreign Office summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires in London to demand Petrov and Boshirov come to Britain to stand trial, a spokeswoman said.
But prosecutors said they would not formally seek their extradition, as Russia has made clear in previous cases that it did not extradite its nationals.
In 2007, Russia refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the prime suspect in the murder by radioactive poisoning of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.
“We have, however, obtained a European arrest warrant (EAW),” said Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service.
“(This) means that if either man travels to a country where an EAW is valid, they will be arrested and face extradition on these charges”, which will never expire.
Britain’s top counter-terror police officer, Neil Basu, said the two suspects had traveled to Britain with legitimate visas.
But he said they were likely using aliases, and said photos of them were being made public in the hope that someone would recognize them.
He said the pair, who are in their 40s, flew into London two days before the attack and stayed in a hotel, where traces of Novichok were found in their room.