FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Britain’s Alleged ‘GRU Killers’ Tell Interviewer They Were Tourists in U.K.
Sept. 13, 2018 (EIRNS)—Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT multimedia news broadcaster, has videotaped a full interview with two Russians who have been charged by Britain with the attempted murder of turncoat GRU Col. Sergei Skripal by “novichok” in Salisbury, England on March 4. The British claim the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are pseudonyms for killers with Russia’s military intelligence, GRU, but these men insist that they are civilian businessmen and those are their real names. Although they seemed nervous in the interview and would not produce identity papers—they have been charged with attempted murder, of course—no one has questioned the fact that they look just like the two “suspects” the British captured on multiple cable TV videos shown around the world.
They say they came to Salisbury on March 3 to see its famous clock tower, and Stonehenge, and the ancient Old Sarum settlement. But they left quickly because the city was covered in slush, and returned from London the next day to pursue their sightseeing. (The British had characterized the first visit as casing the area, and said they planted the poison when they returned the next day.)
Asked whether they had carried a fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle (allegedly filled with novichok), they said they had not, and asked why men would be carrying a bottle of ladies’ perfume. Customs would have asked them about it when they came into the country. They deny any connection with attempted murder or any knowledge of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was also poisoned while visiting from Russia; two other individuals in Salisbury died in June, after supposedly picking up a discarded perfume bottle with novichok.
The interview has been widely broadcast in Russian, and RT has now posted a translation of the full transcript.
Britain’s Guardian writes that “British officials say Russia’s new denial was so ‘risible’ it left them speechless,” without giving any reason why it was “risible.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented drily on her Facebook page:
“The Foreign Office says it is obfuscation and lies. Is it the same Foreign Office that claimed earlier that Petrov and Boshirov had passports in fake names? [U.K. Foreign Secretary] Boris Johnson seems to have left not a sinking ship but a leaky boat that Theresa May is steering.”
