LONODON, February 14. /TASS/. UK TV channel Sky News has identified the third suspect in last year’s poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

The channel reported, citing the Bellingcat group, that the third suspect was Denis Sergeev, a senior officer of Russia’s military intelligence GRU who uses the alias Sergey Fedotov.

When contacted by a TASS correspondent, Scotland Yard sources refused to comment on the information.

Sky News also reported that the third suspect allegedly left the United Kingdom on March 4, 2018, the day when the Skripals were poisoned, and headed to Moscow via Rome. However, the Daily Telegraph earlier said, citing own sources, that the suspect could still be staying on the territory of the United Kingdom.

Skripal saga

According to London, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia, suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4, 2018. 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 September 5, 2018, 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. The Metropolitan Police said their names were Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

In an interview with Russia’s RT TV channel, Petrov and Boshirov said they had visited Great Britain for tourist purposes. According to them, they are businessmen with no links to the GRU and have nothing to do with the Skripal case.