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UK police release new videos with Skripal case suspects

Investigators are looking for eyewitnesses, who saw Russian citizens Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Bashirov in Salisbury
Scotland Yard headquarters in London Jack Taylor/Getty Images
Scotland Yard headquarters in London
© Jack Taylor/Getty Images

LONDON, November 23. /TASS/. The UK police have published new footage showing suspects in the Skrpal poisoning incidents in Salisbury and Amesbury, requesting more information on the case from the public.

Investigators are looking for eyewitnesses, who saw Russian citizens Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Bashirov and who are suspected by the UK of poisoning Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The first CCTV clip shows the two suspects as they arrive at Salisbury train station on Sunday, March 4, at around 11:48 local time. The second clip shows the suspects at approximately 11:58 local time walking past a petrol station in Wilton Road. The third clip shows the two men walking over a bridge on Fisherton Street at approximately 13:00 hours before they eventually return to Salisbury train station and travel back to Heathrow and catch a flight to Moscow later that night.

Apart from videos, police also published images of white plastic objects, which appear to be fragments of a sprayer.

Among other things, the police are seeking to clarify "one of the key things" in the ongoing investigation, which is where the counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume bottle was between the it was probably discarded on the afternoon of 4 March, to when Charlie Rowley says he found it on 27 June.

"If you think you saw the pink box or bottle anywhere in the Salisbury area during that time, then please get in touch with us," said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, Senior National Coordinator for UK Counter Terrorism Policing. "We remain as determined as ever to identify and bring to justice all those responsible for the reckless acts."

 

Skripal saga

According to London, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal, 66, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia, 33, suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia ever had any program aimed at developing such a substance.

On June 30, two British nationals - Dawn Sturgess and Charles Rowley - were taken to hospital in Amesbury in critical condition. A Scotland Yard officer who led the investigation speculated later that they might have been poisoned with a Novichok class nerve agent. On July 8, it was announced that Sturgess had died in hospital. Rowley was released from hospital on July 20, but was hospitalized again in August. In his interview with ITV, Rowley said he had found a sealed box in a cellophane wrapper containing a perfume bottle and handed it to his partner Sturgess as a gift.

On September 5, British Prime Minister Theresa May informed the country’s parliament about the conclusions that investigators looking into the Salisbury incident had come to, saying that two Russians, believed to be GRU agents, were suspected of conspiracy to murder the Skripals. According to May, the assassination attempt was approved at "a senior level of the Russian state." The Metropolitan Police published the suspects’ photos, saying their names were Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

In an interview with Russia’s RT TV channel released on September 13, Petrov and Boshirov said they had visited Great Britain for tourist purposes. According to them, they are businessmen not linked to the GRU and have nothing to do with the Skripal case.