Putin adviser: Never heard of poisoning suspects

This still taken from CCTV and issued by the Metropolitan Police in London on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, shows Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov at Salisbury train station on March 3, 2018. British prosecutors have charged two Russian men, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. They are charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and use of the nerve agent Novichok. (Metropolitan Police via AP)

A senior adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn’t know the people whom Britain named as suspects in the poisoning of a former Russia spy.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday that the two suspects behind the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia work for Russia’s military intelligence.

Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters in Moscow that the names of the two Russian men suspected in the poisoning “do not mean anything to me.”

Ushakov pointed to the fact that British authorities mentioned that they think the men’s names are aliases and wondered “why this has been done and what kind of a message” Britain is trying to send to the Russian government. 

British prosecutors said Wednesday they have charged two Russian men with the nerve agent poisoning of the Skripals in the English city of Salisbury.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the men, known to British investigators as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, are charged in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, and use of the nerve agent Novichok.  /kga

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