Two Russian spies identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are being charged in absentia for the nerve agent poisoning murder of one British citizen and the attempted murder of four others in the United Kingdom.
London prosecutors said they have more than sufficient evidence to charge Petrov and Boshirov for "conspiracy to murder" over the poisonings in Salisbury and Amesbury over the past five months. The Novichok poison used by the assassins killed Dawn Sturgess while almost killing her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, Wiltshire police detective Nick Bailey, and Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Sergei Skripal was a former Russian spy who turned double agent for the UK.
The Skripals, who live in Salisbury, were the original assassination targets of the two Russian spies. Both survived. Sturgess, Rowley, and Bailey who came from Amesbury were collateral damage. The Skripals were poisoned in their home in Salisbury, England on March 4.
Petrov and Boshirov are spies working for the GRU or the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The London Metropolitan Police released photos of both Russian assassins, as well as photos of the fake perfume bottle and box used in the Novichok poisoning of Sturgess and Rowley in July.
Metropolitan Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said the Russian assassins are aged around 40. He also said the names they used on their passports are likely aliases. The UK, however, will not ask Russia to extradite the assassins but it has obtained a European Arrest Warrant for them.
Basu said CCTV shows the assassins in the vicinity of the Skripals property on March 4, the date the father and daughter were poisoned. He also said the Russians left the UK on a flight from Heathrow to Moscow hours later. They arrived in the UK on March 2.
Basu said law enforcement authorities have no evidence the Russian assassins re-entered the UK after March 4.
He also said police don't believe Sturgess and Rowley were deliberately targeted but became victims because of the recklessness way the assassins disposed of the perfume bottle containing the liquid Novichok. Basu revealed the Novichok was applied to the Skripals' front door in an area accessible to the public.
Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed the two men were officers of the GRU. She said Britain's security and intelligence agencies have carried out their own investigations.
"I can today tell the House ... that the government has concluded that the two individuals named are officers from the Russian intelligence services."
May said authorization for the poisoning attacks almost certainly came from the highest levels of the Russian government, an indirect reference to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. She said she'll push for more European Union sanctions against Russia over the poisonings.
