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Names of suspects in Salisbury, Amesbury cases say nothing — Russian Foreign Ministry

The investigation of such serious crimes, like those Britain has mentioned so many times needs painstaking work, scrupulous analysis of all facts and tight interaction, the ministry's spokeswoman said

MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. The names of suspects British officials mentioned in connection with the Salisbury and Amesbury incidents say nothing to Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the media on Wednesday.

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"The media have published statements by British officials concerning suspects in the Salisbury and Amesbury incidents. Some links with Russia have been made. The names and photographs published in the media say nothing to us," Zakharova said. "Once again we are calling upon the British side to drop public charges and information manipulations and to start practical interaction between law enforcement agencies. London has numerous requests from the Russian side."

"The investigation of such serious crimes, like those Britain has mentioned so many times needs painstaking work, scrupulous analysis of all facts and tight interaction," Zakharova said.

Earlier, the Crown Prosecution Service said it was ready to charge two Russian citizens - Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - with attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal. Scotland Yard has published their photographs. British police officials said, though, the suspects’ names were most likely fictitious.

Salisbury and Amesbury incidents

If the British version of the affair is to be believed, the Skripals on March 4 were affected in Salisbury by a nerve gas from the Novichok family. The British government claimed that Russia was highly likely involved in the incident. Moscow has dismissed all speculations on that score all along, saying that programs for making such substances had never existed in either the Soviet Union or Russia. Britain’s military chemical laboratory at Porton Down has been unable to establish the origin of the substance that poisoned the Skripals.

British citizen Dawn Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rawley, suffering from heroin addiction, were taken to hospital in Amesbury on June 30 in critical condition. Scotland Yard’s official in charge of the investigation speculated that both had been poisoned by Novichok, too. On July 8, it was announced that Sturgess had died in hospital. Rawley was discharged from hospital on July 20 only to be hospitalized again when he started complaining about vision problems.

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