Novichok attacked: Russia ‘has no factor’ to check out suspects

Peskov said Russia had not received any official request from Britain for assistance in identifying the two suspected Russian GRU military intelligence officers that Scotland Yard believes carried out the attack- the first use of chemical weapons in Europe since the end of the second world war.” For us to be able to do something in this direction, we need to receive a request ,” Peskov said.” This is usual international practise .”

Earlier Russia said its request for the British embassy in Moscow to provide the fingerprint records of the two men had been met with” an unconditional refusal “.

Moscow said Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to Russia, was summoned to the foreign ministry shortly after May's statement.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, told country television that Russian nationals would have had to provide fingerprints to receive a British visa.

She called the British refusal to allow Russia to study the alleged GRU officers' fingerprints records” a gross rudeness “. The UK had refused to share evidence through official channels, she said, and had staged an” absurd and funny provocation “.

Zakharova claimed Moscow was still open to cooperating with London in the investigation into the attack in Salisbury. The British embassy said it would not comment at this point on what was a private discussion at the foreign ministry.

She described British accusations that Russia was behind the poisoning as” a hellish carousel that has no end or beginning “. She accused British authorities of doctoring CCTV images that the Metropolitan police say prove the two suspectsarriving on Friday 2 March at Gatwick airport. Police say the two men employed aliases to travel to Britain.

” The same place, the same corridor, and the timestamp on the footage is identical to the second ,” Zakharova said.” Accordingly, either the date and the exact time were overlaid on the image, or these are GRU agents who have learned to walk synchronously while seeming separately in two different photos. You know, this is god-level trolling .”

On Thursday Scotland Yard said the images of the two suspects at Gatwick were taken away from two different cameras covering separate lanes. The photos were recorded at the point passengers exit from international arrivals, a spokesperson said. Gatwick airport has several, nearly identical gate hallways that people arriving in Britain must pass through. The Scotland Yard response was also referred to it by Russia's state-controlled RIA Novosti news agency.

Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian parliament's international relations committee, lashed out at May's allegations that Moscow had dispatched would-be assassins to Salisbury.

” Britain is continuing a large-scale anti-Russian provocation ,” he said.” This is absolute nonsense. Once again there is no real evidence of Russia's involvement, only ungrounded accusations .”

May's claims that GRU policemen carried out the chemical weapons assault in Salisbury came two days after Putin signed a presidential edict stimulating information about freelance agents who carry out operations for Russian foreign intelligence services a nation secret.

On Wednesday, Estonia said it had detained two of its nationals on suspicion of spying for Russia. One ran at the country's defence forces' headquarters. The men are suspected of passing Estonian and foreign classified information to GRU officers.