British prosecutors on Wednesday charged two Russian nationals, described as officers from the Russian military intelligence service GRU, with the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a deadly nerve agent in the UK earlier this year.
There was “sufficient evidence” to charge two Russian nationals, Scotland Yard said.
The suspects, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, believed to be in their 40s and using the names as aliases, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement.
In an update to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Theresa May pointed the finger of blame directly at the Russian Government. She said: “Based on a body of intelligence, the Government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and CPS are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU. “The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command. So this was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state,” the British Prime Minister said.
The 66-year-old former Russian double agent and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a shopping centre bench in the southern English town of Salisbury on March 4.