Britain charges two members of Russian military intelligence service over Novichok attack targeting former spy in Salisbury
Police identified Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as the men who tried to kill Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March
British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that two Russian military intelligence officials carried out a nerve agent attack on a former spy on British soil, as prosecutors issued a warrant for the suspects’ arrest.
Police identified Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as the men who allegedly tried to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in the city of Salisbury in 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.
“The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command. So this was not a rogue operation,” she told parliament. “It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.”
London and its allies had previously blamed Moscow for the attack, which Russia angrily denied, sparking a wave of diplomatic expulsions on both sides, as well as fresh US sanctions.