Novichok suspects’ TV interview deeply offensive to victims – Downing Street

Britain has accused Russia of “lies and blatant fabrications” after the prime suspects in the Salisbury nerve agent attack claimed they visited the UK as tourists.

Men who said their names were Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov told Russian state-funded news channel RT they travelled to the “wonderful” city in Wiltshire after recommendations from friends.

The pair claimed they have been left fearing for their lives after Britain pointed to their involvement and said they were officers in Russian military intelligence service the GRU.

Downing Street called the content of the interview “deeply offensive to the victims and loved ones of this horrific attack”.

In a translation from Russian, the pair told RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan they worked in the fitness industry.

The broadcaster quoted Petrov as saying they arrived in London on March 2 and attempted to visit Salisbury on March 3 but were thwarted by snow.

They said they returned the following day when it was warmer to see the cathedral.

He said: “Of course, we went there to see Stonehenge, Old Sarum, but we couldn’t do it because there was muddy slush everywhere. The town was covered by this slush. We got wet, took the nearest train and came back (to London).”

In the men’s first interview since they were named publicly they denied carrying women’s perfume, after police discovered a counterfeit bottle that contained a “significant amount” of Novichok.

Boshirov acknowledged they may have been near Mr Skripal’s house but they did not know where it was.

They also asked for an apology from the UK authorities, adding: “We just want this to be over.”

UK authorities believe the pair smeared the highly toxic chemical Novichok on a door handle at the Wiltshire home of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal, leaving Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia critically ill.

Tests on the east London hotel room where the suspects had stayed showed contamination of Novichok.

Scotland Yard said it still believed the pair were using aliases after the men claimed Petrov and Boshirov were their real names.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The lies and blatant fabrications in this interview given to a Russian-state sponsored TV station are an insult to the public’s intelligence.

“More importantly, the are deeply offensive to the victims and loved ones of this horrific attack. Sadly, it is what we have come to expect.

“An illegal chemical weapon has been used on the streets of this country. We have seen four people left seriously ill in hospital and an innocent woman has died. Russia has responded with contempt.”

John Glen, the Conservative MP for Salisbury and South Wiltshire, also dismissed the statements from Petrov and Boshirov as “not credible”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the men had been discounted as members of his security network.

In an address to the Easter Economic Forum in Vladivostok, he said: “Of course, we looked who these people are. We know who they are, we have found them already.

“There is nothing special and nothing criminal about it, I’m telling you.”

Questioned on whether the pair were civilians, Mr Putin replied: “Of course they are civilians.”

Boshirov said his life had been turned “upside down”, according to RT.

He said: “We’re afraid of going out, we fear for ourselves, our lives and lives of our loved ones.”

Officers formally linked the attack on the Skripals to events in nearby Amesbury where Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, were exposed to the same nerve agent.

Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July, just over a week after the pair fell ill.

A police officer who visited the home of the Skripals shortly after the attack, Nick Bailey, was also left critically ill from exposure to the substance.