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Agence France-Presse

British police believe that they have identified the suspects who carried out the Novichok nerve agent attack on a former Moscow double agent and his daughter and that they are Russian, the Press Association reported on Thursday.
“Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time,” a source with knowledge of the investigation told PA, the British domestic news agency.
“They [investigators] are sure they [suspects] are Russian,” the source added.
Scotland Yard police headquarters refused to comment on the report.

However, Britain’s security minister dismissed the report as “wild speculation”.
“I think this story belongs in the ‘ill informed and wild speculation folder’” Ben Wallace said on Twitter, in response to the Press Association report.
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed in the southwestern English city of Salisbury on March 4 after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok. Both have since recovered.
Britain blamed Russia for the poisoning of Skripal, a former military intelligence colonel who was jailed for betraying Russian agents to Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service.
He left Russia for England in a 2010 spy swap.
Russia has strongly denied involvement in the Skripal attack, sparking a diplomatic row that has led to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between Britain and its allies and Moscow.
Searches are still expected to continue for several weeks, if not months
Scotland Yard
Two Britons fell ill in June after being exposed to Novichok. Experts are seeking to establish whether the toxin was from the same batch used against the Skripals.
Charlie Rowley, 45, and his 44-year-old partner Dawn Sturgess, collapsed at his house in Amesbury, a town close to Salisbury, within hours of each other on June 30.
Sturgess died on July 8, while Rowley has regained consciousness and is in stable condition. The Sturgess death is being investigated as murder.
PA said investigators believe Sturgess was exposed to at least 10 times the amount of nerve agent as the Skripals came into contact with.
Police have said it was detected in a “small bottle” at Rowley’s house.
Rowley’s brother Matthew told the BBC that the 45-year-old had told him the Novichok was contained in a perfume bottle.
Investigators are working to the theory that Sturgess sprayed Novichok straight onto her skin, the PA source said.
An inquest into the death of Sturgess was to open on Thursday at Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner’s Court in Salisbury.
Novichok nerve agent that killed UK woman could remain active for 50 years
In English law, inquests are held to examine violent, unnatural or unexplained deaths. They set out to determine the place and time of death as well as how the deceased came by their death, but do not apportion blame.
The inquest will be formally opened but then adjourned to a later date.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said its inspectors had collected samples in the Amesbury case and returned to the organisation’s headquarters in The Hague on Wednesday to begin analysing them.
The OPCW said in a statement that it had received a request from Britain on Friday to provide technical assistance.

They deployed a team to “independently determine the nature of the substance” alleged to have resulted in the death of Sturgess and the poisoning of Rowley.
“The OPCW team collected samples. The samples will be sent to two OPCW designated laboratories and once the results of the analysis are received, the report will be submitted to the United Kingdom,” it said.
Police have recovered more than 400 exhibits, samples and items as part of the investigation into the death of Sturgess.
“Searches are still expected to continue for several weeks, if not months,” Scotland Yard has said.
On Wednesday, police started a search of the Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury. Certain parts were to be searched by fingertip. The search is due to last several days.
The “detailed and meticulous search” is a “significant step in the operation”, said Wiltshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills.
The New York Times newspaper reported on Sunday that British investigators believe the attack on the Skripals was most likely conducted by current or former agents of the Russian military intelligence agency.
The service, known as the GRU, is the same one accused of interfering with the 2016 US presidential election. Twelve GRU officers were charged Friday with hacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The report cited a British official, a US official and a former US official familiar with the inquiry.


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Britain

UK has identified Russian suspects in Novichok nerve poison attack on ex-spy Skripal and daughter: report

Members of the emergency services in green biohazard suits work to afix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found on March 4 in critical condition in Salisbury, southern England, on March 8. Photo: AFP

This undated image taken from the Facebook page of Yulia Skripal on March 8, 2018 allegedly shows Yulia Skripal, the daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, in an unknown location. British detectives were scrambling on March 8 to uncover who poisoned a Russian former double-agent and his daughter with a nerve agent, as doctors battled to save their lives and that of a policeman who also fell ill after coming to their aid. Sergei Skripal, 66, who moved to Britain in a 2010 spy swap, is in a critical condition in hospital along with his daughter Yulia after they collapsed on a bench outside a shopping centre on Sunday. The brazen poisoning in the southwestern English city of Salisbury is already being linked with Russia by British politicians and the media, sparking an angry response in Moscow. / AFP PHOTO / FACEBOOK PAGE OF YULIA SKRIPAL / - / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / FACEBOOK ACCOUNT OF YULIA SKRIPAL" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - D

Former Russian military intelligence colonel Sergei Skripal attends a hearing at the Moscow District Military Court in Moscow on August 9, 2006. Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent whose mysterious collapse in England sparked concerns of a possible poisoning by Moscow, has been living in Britain since a high-profile spy swap in 2010. Police were probing his exposure to an unknown substance, which left him unconscious on a bench in the city of Salisbury and saw media draw parallels to the case of Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-spy who died of radioactive polonium poisoning in 2006. / AFP PHOTO / Kommersant Photo / Yuri SENATOROV / Russia OUT

A licence to kill? Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov implies British agents poisoned double agent Sergei Skripal

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Photo: AFP

Britain claims Russia spied on Skripals before poisoning with nerve agent as Moscow challenges watchdog findings

Police stand outside what is believed to be the home of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Photo: EPA

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 09, 2006 Former Russian military intelligence colonel Sergei Skripal attends a hearing at the Moscow District Military Court in Moscow on August 9, 2006. The world's chemical arms watchdog on April 12, 2018 confirmed Britain's findings that a nerve agent used in an attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England last month originally came from Russia. Blood samples tested by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) "confirm the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical," according to a summary of the Hague-based group's report released in London. / AFP PHOTO / Kommersant Photo / Yuri SENATOROV / Russia OUT

epa06666723 Russia's Ambassador to Britain, Alexander Yakovenko speaks at a press conference at his residence in central London, Britain, 13 April 2018. Reports state that Alexander Yakovenko gave his reaction to potential military action in Syria and the Salisbury Skripal poisoning case. EPA-EFE/NEIL HALL

(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 10, 2018 Members of the emergency services in protective coveralls and breathing equiptment cover ambulances with tarpaulins at the Salisbury District Hospital in Salisbury, southern England, on March 10, 2018, in connection with the major incident sparked after a man and a woman were apparently poisoned in a nerve agent attack. The world's chemical arms watchdog on April 12, 2018 confirmed Britain's findings that a nerve agent used in an attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England last month originally came from Russia. Blood samples tested by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) "confirm the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical," according to a summary of the Hague-based group's report released in London. / AFP PHOTO / DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS

Britain lashes out at Russia after poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal, who betrayed Moscow

A still image taken from an undated video shows Sergei Skripal being detained by secret service officers in an unknown location. Photo: RTR/via Reuters

Police outside an Italian restaurant in Salisbury, England, Tuesday March 6, 2018, near to where former Russian spy double agent Sergei Skripal and his companion were found critically ill Sunday following exposure to an "unknown substance". 66-year old Skripal, and unidentified woman companion are being treated in hospital, after they were found unconscious on the park bench in Salisbury.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

epa06584862 Police stand outside of an address believed to be the home of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, Britain 06 March 2018. Media reports state that former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia Skripal is in intensive care after allegedly being exposure to an unknown substance as they sat on a bench in the centre of Salisbury, southern England. Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer, who had been sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of spying for the the Britain and later in 2010 was exchanged in a spy swap. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a bench in The Maltings shopping centre Salisbury. Police sealed the bench and closed a restaurant, in which he was seen eating. Both remain in a critical condition in intensive care. EPA-EFE/NEIL HALL

FILE - In this Friday May 10, 2002 file photo Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB spy and author of the book "Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within", is photographed at his home in London. Former KGB agent who defected to Britain and become a vocal Kremlin critic, Alexander Litvinenko died in November 2006, three weeks after drinking tea laced with a radioactive isotope at a London hotel. (AP Photo/File)

A police tent covers the the spot in Salisbury, England, Tuesday, March 6, 2018, where former Russian spy double agent Sergei Skripal and his companion were found critically ill Sunday following exposure to an "unknown substance". 66-year old Skripal, and unidentified woman companion are being treated in hospital, after they were found unconscious on the park bench.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

This is an alleged image of the daughter of former Russian Spy Sergei Skripal, Yulia Skripal taken from Yulia Skipal's Facebook account on Tuesday March 6, 2018. British counterterrorism police said Tuesday that they are now leading the investigating into the unexplained illness of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, although it hasn't been declared a terrorist incident. The Skripals were taken ill in Salisbury southwest England on Sunday. (Yulia Skripal/Facebook via AP)

Chemical arms watchdog wins right to declare who poisoned Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal with nerve agent in UK

Investigators in protective suits work at the scene of the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Salisbury, England, on March 13. Photo: PA via AP

Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned in Salisbury along with her father, Russian spy Sergei Skripal, speaks to media representatives in London, on May 23, 2018. The daughter of Russian spy Sergei Skripal, Yulia Skripal has said that she wants to return to her country "in the longer term", despite being poisoned with a nerve agent, according to news reports. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / DYLAN MARTINEZ

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However, Britain’s security minister Ben Wallace dismissed the report as ‘wild speculation’


.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Developing | UK has identified Russian suspects in Novichok nerve poison attack on ex-spy Skripal and daughter: report

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}However, Britain’s security minister Ben Wallace dismissed the report as ‘wild speculation’

Developing | UK has identified Russian suspects in Novichok nerve poison attack on ex-spy Skripal and daughter: report

However, Britain’s security minister Ben Wallace dismissed the report as ‘wild speculation’