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Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2018 18:20:27 GMT
British police believe they’ve uncovered the source of the deadly nerve agent Novichok, which was used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, and also led to the death of a woman who was exposed to the agent in June. Counter-terrorism officers said on Friday that upon searching the house of poisoning victim Charlie Rowley, they came across a small glass bottle. After sending the bottle to Porton Down, Britain’s military research laboratory, it was confirmed that the substance inside was Novichok. After the Skripal poisoning in March, British authorities led an exhaustive clean-up operation in Salisbury, including the pub and restaurant the Skripals had visited, the park area where they collapsed, police and ambulance stations used by first responders, and the house of a detective who arrived at the scene. Nonetheless, their poisoning presented a major headache to British authorities, as it raised the possibility that traces of Novichok had been left around other parts of Salisbury and the surrounding area and had not been decontaminated. The discovery of the bottle, however, could allow detectives to potentially re-trace the route taken by the poisoners and, potentially, help to identify them.
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Post by Admin on Jul 30, 2018 18:16:51 GMT
Investigators believe at least two teams of Russian hitmen were behind the Novichok attack on the Skripals in Salisbury, it has been revealed. Police are working on the theory that one team arrived in Britain to plant the nerve agent weeks before Sergei Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned – and another arrived later to use it, The Mirror reports. Authorities believe the nerve agent was disguised as perfume in order to get it through customs and into the country. That led to the death of Dawn Sturgess, 44, who died after spraying a bottle of Novichok that was disguised as perfume. Her boyfriend Charlie Rowley, 45, found the discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury in June and gave it to the mother-of-three as a present. The source said any suggestion that the nerve agent didn't originate in Russia is 'laughable.' Mr Rowley said the nerve agent took just 15 minutes to poison Ms Sturgess after she sprayed the 'oily' substance on to her wrists thinking it was perfume. 'I do have a memory of her spraying it on her wrists and rubbing them together,' he told ITV. 'I guess that's how she applied it and became ill. I guess how I got in contact with it is when I put the spray part to the bottle... I ended tipping some on my hands, but I washed it off under the tap.'
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Post by Admin on Sept 6, 2018 18:10:04 GMT
Two men suspected of being Russian spies have been named as the prime suspects in the Salisbury novichok poisoning. Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are wanted for the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey. Prime Minster Theresa May said the suspects were officers from the Russian intelligence service GRU and the attack had been approved "at a senior level of the Russian state". Speaking in the House of Commons, Mrs May said based on "a body of intelligence" the government had concluded suspects Petrov and Boshirov were officers from the GRU.
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Post by Admin on Sept 10, 2018 18:03:46 GMT
The men, using the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, are thought to be officers from Russia's military intelligence service, the PM said. Scotland Yard and the CPS say there is enough evidence to charge the men. Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in March. Det Sgt Nick Bailey also fell ill after responding to the incident in Salisbury. Police are linking the attack to a separate Novichok poisoning on 30 June, when Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley became unwell at a house in Amesbury, about eight miles from Salisbury. Ms Sturgess died in hospital on 8 July. Mr Rowley was discharged from hospital on 20 July. Speaking to ITV News on Wednesday, he said he wanted to see the suspects "brought to justice".
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Post by Admin on Sept 12, 2018 17:57:51 GMT
Vladimir Putin says Russia has identified the men suspected of the Salisbury poisonings and that they are "civilians" not linked to the government.
"We know who they are, we have found them," Mr Putin said at an economic forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok.
"There is nothing special or criminal about it, I can assure you."
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