Russia knows who the two men suspected of attempting to murder a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. are, and there’s “nothing criminal” about them, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
British Prime Minister Theresa May last week said Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, officers of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, were employed directly by the Russian state, and traveled to the U.K. on false passports to poison former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in Salisbury in March.
The attack left one British citizen dead and the former Russian spy-turned-MI6 double agent and his daughter fighting for their lives.
But speaking at an economic forum in Vladivostok, Putin claimed the two men “are civilians of course,” and don’t work for the military, according to a report by the state-run TASS news agency.
“We of course looked into what kind of people they are — we know who they are, we have found them,” Putin said. “I hope they will appear themselves and tell everything. This would be best for everyone. There is nothing special there, nothing criminal, I assure you. We’ll see in the near future.”
Last week, May told the Commons that “based on a body of intelligence, the two individuals are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU,” and insisted “this was not a rogue operation.”