Britain charges 2 Russians over Novichok poisoning
LONDON — Britain charged two alleged Russian military intelligence officers with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury, officials said Wednesday, though authorities held out little hope of being able to bring them to justice.
The men, who entered the U.K. under the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, are being charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok, prosecutors said.
Prime Minister Theresa May told lawmakers that British intelligence has concluded that the two men are officers of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service.
May said the attack “was not a rogue operation” and was almost certainly approved at a “senior level of the Russian state.”