United Kingdom charges two over Russian spy poisoning

Amid reports that Britain was planning a direct response in cyber-space, Wallace said the Russians were the main operators behind attacks on British networks.

Corbyn said: “We utterly condemn the appalling attacks”. He condemned what he said was the “somewhat weasely language of the leader of the opposition” in not going sufficiently far to condemn Russian Federation directly for the attack.

“The UK is concerned about the activities of the Russian government, not Russian people”, – said in another message of the Embassy.

Police say they believe the nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter was smuggled to Britain in a counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle and applied to the front door of Skripal’s house. Her partner Charlie Rowley was also poisoned but survived.

Two Russian intelligence officers are suspected to have carried out the attempted murder of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal, which was nearly certainly approved “at a senior level” of the Russian state, British prime minister Theresa May revealed Wednesday.

British prosecutors accuse Petrov and Boshirov of conspiracy to murder Skripal, attempted murder and the use of a banned chemical weapon.

This was “part of a wider pattern of Russian behaviour that persistently seeks to undermine our security and that of our allies around the world”, May said, promising further action to combat the GRU, and against Russia generally.

Detectives believe it is likely the pair, thought to be aged around 40, travelled under aliases and that Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names.

He urged the United Kingdom and its allies to now “send a very clear message to Russian Federation that this kind of behaviour won’t be tolerated”.

The UK this week identified the men as Russian intelligence officers and said President Vladimir Putin was “ultimately” responsible for the March attack.

Rather than merely living an isolated life in retirement, Mr. Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, continued to provide briefings to spies in the Czech Republic and Estonia, according to European officials. It has extensive cyber and signals operations and has been accused of hacking and online sabotage. The incident occurred in Salisbury on March 4, 2018.

The Kremlin calls the British evidence hogwash, along with everything else the GRU has been accused of in recent years hacking the 2016 USA election campaign, trying to stage a coup in Montenegro, downing a Malaysian Airlines plane over Ukraine, running mercenaries in Syria. The British government and the majority of Western countries are sure that this was done by order of the Kremlin in retaliation for the spy-defector.

Sergei Skripal served in the GRU as a military intelligence officer in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Former Russian military intelligence colonel Sergei Skripal attends a hearing at the Moscow District Military Court in Moscow on August 9, 2006.

The United States also imposed fresh sanctions over the attack.

We will remind, in Moscow, said that video evidence in the case of Violinists are fake.

“In some ways, our focus on the GRU keeps us looking in the wrong direction”, Sipher said.

Police say the men travelled on Russian passports bearing the names Petrov and Boshirov, but that these are nearly certainly aliases.