The Press Association is reporting that British anti-terrorist police have identified the Russians they believe are responsible for the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal which resulted in the death of a third person with another still being in hospital. They are looking for more than one suspect.
A source with knowledge of the investigation said: "Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time. They (the investigators) are sure they (the suspects) are Russian."
www.telegraph.co.uk/…
The Telegraph had reported in April
Counter-terrorism police are now trying to build a case against “persons of interest”, who are believed to be back in Russia.
The Telegraph has been told that the criminal inquiry, expected to take many more months, is understood to have made a major breakthrough in identifying key people over the nerve agent attack.
At that time, the police had trawled through flight manifests to identify suspects. It now looks like they have CCTV evidence of the suspects in the Salisbury area at the time of the attack. This would confirm the view of a former British intelligence officer who offers a motive.
Philip Ingram, a former British Army intelligence officer and chemical weapons expert, said the development supported his perception that this was a "professional attack" designed to send a "political message" - adding that it happened two weeks before the Russian election.
"My view is that the primary reason behind it was to send a message out to dissenters - and Sergei Skripal was chosen because he was based in Salisbury and that gave the Russians plausible deniability by saying, oh it must have leaked from Porton Down, because it's just up the road," he said.
From what is in the public domain, the nerve agent was carried in a perfume bottle, later discarded and found by Dawn Sturgess. She mistook the contents for perfume and sprayed it on her wrists. Her partner, Charlie Rowley is presumed to have been exposed to the agent through contact with her. She died and Charlie remains in hospital, although he has now woken up (likely from an induced coma) and is able to speak. An inquest into Dawn’s death is due to open today. This is likely to be a formal hearing to confirm identity which will be adjourned to allow the police to investigate further.
The UK and Russia do have an extradition treaty however those identified as the murderers of Alexander Litvinenko using polonium have been protected. They were elected to the Russian Duma. The Russian constitution forbids the extradition of Russian citizens, something to remember when the Russians “request” to interview former Ambassador McFaul.
Thursday, Jul 19, 2018 · 10:59:03 PM +00:00 · Lib Dem FoP
Sorry I was out but have now corrected “Duma”.
You may also see coverage of a British government minister making a sort of semi-denial and singling out the CNN coverage. There may well be a good reason for this which will also go some way to explain the lack of information coming out which has been remarked on.
As I understand it, the CNN report made mention of face recognition software being used to trace the suspects. Any mention of this sort of detail of their work is a no-no. Reports in the UK do not mention this detail probably because those briefed were asked not to include it in their reporting. There will also likely be questions over the extent such software is being used and what restrictions are placed on it. (There are special arrangements for the security services to obtain warrants for such things as phone taps.)
I suspect there was a briefing of a number of journalists, off the record, given the number of “We understand from our sources” type reports. The timing of this was likely to coincide with the formal opening of the inquest.