Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday that two Russian spies carried out a nerve agent attack on a former colleague on British soil, as prosecutors issued a warrant for the suspects' arrest. Prosecutors announced charges against Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov for trying to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in the city of Salisbury on March 4.
May told MPs the pair "are officers of the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU" - adding the attack had been sanctioned from higher up. "This was not a rogue operation. It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state," May said.
London and its allies had previously blamed Moscow for the attack, which Russia angrily denied.
The row sparked a wave of diplomatic expulsions on both sides, as well as fresh US sanctions against Moscow which again denied involvement on Tuesday.
"Unfounded accusations are being levelled against Russia... and absurd demands are being made for explanations in connection with a situation which we have nothing to do with," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Instead of conducting an independent, objective and transparent investigation into the incidents in Salisbury and Amesbury, London continues to engage in anti-Russian megaphone diplomacy, continuing its propaganda show," the statement added.
Earlier a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said the names and photos of the two men wanted by Britain "say nothing to us," accusing London of "manipulating information".
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