NB: The text below is a translation from the Russian, hence it may contain some awkward constructions. Also do note that many translations are erroneously referring to the attack on the Skripals as the attack of "the violins". This is because the Russian word for violin is скрипка --skripka--very similar to the alleged victims' surnames.
Russian Foreign Ministry: London refused to provide fingerprints of suspects in the case of the Violins (Skripals)
© Metropolitan Police via AP/ Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov
MOSCOW, September 5. / TASS /. British Ambassador to Moscow Laurie Bristow said on Wednesday at a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry that London will not provide fingerprints of two men suspected of the case of the Violins. This was stated by TASS official representative of the Russian diplomatic mission Maria Zakharova.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry asked the British ambassador in Moscow to give fingerprints of two men whom they called suspects in London and were linked to Russia," the diplomat said. "The British ambassador said that the British side will not provide these materials."
Zakharova noted that London also refused to share any other information on the case, including the numbers of passports of suspects, their patronymics and personal data. "We hope that at least through the Interpol line these data will be transferred," the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry added. Earlier, she said that the names of the suspects "do not say anything" to Russia.
On the air of the "60 Minutes" program on " Russia-1 " TV channel Zakharova noted that Great Britain is obliged to hand over fingerprints of [the] two men suspected of poisoning [in] Salisbury to Interpol.
"The conversation should start with textures, namely, with fingerprints, if these people, according to the British side, came from the territory of Russia, they should have received British visas, so please be "fingers" on the table. Interpol no one will manage, the diplomat stressed.
On the air at the radio station Ekho Moskvy, Zakharova said that the British side refused to respond to Russian embassy inquiries about information on the suspects. "The attempts of our diplomats to ask questions about the information that was published, the British side did not give any answers," the diplomat noted.
According to her, Moscow currently knows only "the names and surnames of [the] suspects, there are photographs, but there is nothing else: no passport numbers, no visa numbers, no additional data...Why this information was not reflected in any way today, either publicly or during the contact that our embassy had with the British side, remains a big mystery." The official spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that the names of the suspects "said nothing " to Russia.
As stated by Zakharova, [if] the charges brought by London are not backed up, the investigation obviously deliberately leads to a dead end. "The British authorities once again focused on the alleged involvement of the Russian side in the Salisbury and Amesbury incidents, after making a scenario that had already hit the wall." There is an unsubstantiated allegation that "there are sufficient grounds for charging two Russian citizens" with no documents or credible evidence and photos of two individuals , whose citizenship is not confirmed by anything," the diplomat noted.
"Obviously, the so-called case of the Violinists, inspired by the British authorities, is intentionally stalled," the official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "Instead of a truly independent, objective and transparent investigation of the Salisbury and Amesbury incidents, London is persistently using anti-Russian megaphone diplomacy, continuing the propaganda performance in the spirit of the notorious highly likely ("highli Lycli," in English means "with a high degree of probability" - TASS comment). "
On Wednesday, the head of the British government, Theresa May, informed the country's parliament about the findings of the investigation into the incident in Salisbury, saying that two Russians suspected of attempting to poison the Skripals are believed by British intelligence agencies to be agents of the GRU. According to her, this was not an unauthorized operation, and the alleged agents of Russian intelligence acted on orders approved "at a high level in the Russian state level."
In turn, Scotland Yard published a series of photographs, presumably, two Russians suspected [of the poisoning attempt]. According to the investigation, they traveled the country with Russian passports under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
ADDENDA / By Tass
Please note the texts below are non-professional translations of Russian texts and may contain awkward and odd constructions.
A summary of the British accusations, as collated by TASS.
London calls them employees of the GRU, but to Moscow their names and photographs mean nothing.
Below: Footage showing the Russian "suspects" and claims by British officials, including a sanctimonious Theresa May blaming Moscow—and Putin—for the imputed crimes. (@ 1:30). Be patient with this video.
'Ruptly / Metropolitan Police'
The Royal Prosecutor's Office of Great Britain is ready to bring charges against an attempt on the murder of Sergei and Yulia Skripaly [the Skripals] to two Russian citizens - Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. Moscow has already stated that these names do not say anything to the Russian side. However, London claims that these are GRU officials, and now sanctions against Russia will be expanded.
Who are these people and what did they do in the UK?
According to the investigation, [the] men who are about 40 years old, traveled with Russian passports under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. Although Scotland Yard does not consider the passport data to be fake, the investigators suspect that they did not include real names.
The suspects flew together to London's Gatwick Airport on March 2 via SU2588 flight from Aeroflot, which landed in the UK at 15:00 local time. From the airport, they reached the center of London by train, and then by metro they reached the City Stay Hotel in the east of the British capital.
On March 3, the suspects made their first trip to Salisbury by train from the Waterloo station, "most likely for reconnaissance purposes." The next day they went to Salisbury for the second time. Surveillance cameras captured the suspects on March 4 in the afternoon near the house of Sergei Skripal. In the evening of the same day, men, returning to London, flew to Moscow by flight SU2585 of Aeroflot. The police have no reason to believe that after this they returned to the UK.
"We ask everyone who could see these two men to contact us," said the representative of Scotland Yard.
What are they accused of?
In addition to the assassination attempt, Russians are expected to face three more accusations: in a conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal, in the use of chemical weapons, and in causing serious bodily harm to British police officer Nick Bailey.
"Prosecutors from the counterterrorism unit of the Royal Public Prosecutor's Office examined the evidence and came to the conclusion that there were sufficient grounds for conviction, as well as having a clear public interest in presenting charges," the document says.
The wording of the grounds for conviction means that the prosecutor's office believes that, following the results of the trial, it is highly likely to await the conviction of a suspect in a crime.
What is the evidence?
In addition to the evidence from the surveillance cameras, traces of the "Novice" [Novichok nerve agent] were found at the hotel where the suspects stayed. On May 4, 2018, samples were taken for analysis in the hotel room where the suspects stayed, and a number of samples were analyzed at the British military chemical laboratory in Porton Down. The two samples showed the presence of the "Novice" at a level below that which could have caused fears for the health of others," noted in a press release.
After that, it was decided as a precaution to take from the number of additional samples, the analysis of which gave a negative result for the presence of nerve agent. "We believe that the first process of taking smears eliminated traces of infection: so insignificant were the traces of "Novice" in the room," said Scotland Yard.
In Scotland Yard, it was stressed that persons who traveled by the same flight or on the same train as the suspects should not worry that they could be exposed to a poisonous substance. At the same time, the police once again stated that until the end it can not be ruled out that some items related to the attempt at the Fiddles can continue to be in the county of Wiltshire, and therefore again urged people not to bring any findings from the ground.
Will Britain seek their extradition?
No. "We will not appeal to Russia for extradition of these men, since the Russian constitution does not allow the extradition of their own citizens," the prosecutor's office said, which also named the names of the two suspects. "Nevertheless, we have received a European arrest warrant, which means that if these people make a trip to the [a] country where the warrant is valid, they will be arrested and they will be threatened with extradition on charges," the communique said.
Scotland Yard also intends to declare the suspects in the case of the Fiddler on the Interpol search.
How did May react?
The Prime Minister of Great Britain said that the attackers were employees of the GRU. (See video above.) "Based on these data [British intelligence], the government can declare that men named by the police are employees of the GRU," she said. The former GRU is now officially called the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces.
"The GRU is an organization characterized by a high level of discipline, with a clear command structure, so it was not an unauthorized operation, it was almost certainly also given outside the GRU, at a high level in the Russian state," the prime minister is convinced. all our allies and all our citizens, and following what we were able to find out in the course of the [Salisbury incident's investigation, on the basis that we were more widely aware of this organization, we now need to increase the collective efforts of the goal against the GRU ".
According to her, the UK will work to expand the all-European sanctions against Russia.
SIDEBAR (By TGP editors, not TASS)
Here's Theresa May making all sorts of accusations against Russia. She's a very dependable cog in the Empire's disinformation machine.
Calling the Crimean reunification with Russia a "takeover", an "annexation".
What did the London allies say?
Solidarity with London was expressed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau . US Ambassador to Britain Woody Johnson confirmed his intention to call Russia to account in the case of the Violins. The FRG intends to wait until the British side presents its information on the progress of the investigation.
What is Russia's position?
Moscow considers the tone of May's speech on the Salisbury incident unacceptable and rejects London's insinuations. Russia has not received information from the United Kingdom about two Russian citizens allegedly involved in the poisoning of former colonel GRU and his daughter. London also refused to provide fingerprints [of the] suspects.
"The media have published statements by British officials regarding the suspects in the Salisbury and Amesbury case, and links are being made [to] Russia." The names published in the media, like the photographs, do not tell us anything, " Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. She also drew attention to inconsistencies in the pictures of suspects in the case of the Skripals.
The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov stressed that the Russian Federation is not involved in the case of the Violins either at the highest or any other level. According to him, to verify the data on the alleged suspects in Salisbury need a request from the British authorities. At the same time, London's position is that "there is no point" in interacting with Moscow on this matter.
Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Yuri Ushakov expressed bewilderment with the data announced by London. The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, called the new accusations delusions. The ex-head of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation Nikolai Kovalev considered May's accusations to be a "false message".
The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation announced its intention to obtain from Britain materials on the involvement of Russians in the poisoning of the Violins. (Skripals!)
Breaking!
See also below the material presented by former UK ambassador Craig Murray, which also debunks the claims being made by London. Murray—a vocal critic of the Russiagate psyops— notes that London is saying two men were exactly at the same spot at the same time, which would indicate an impossibility and therefore a falsehood.
The Impossible Photo
These CCTV images released by Scotland Yard today allegedly show Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov both occupying exactly the same space at Gatwick airport at precisely the same second. 16.22.43 on 2 March 2018. Note neither photo shows the other following less than a second behind.
There is no physically possible explanation for this. You can see ten yards behind each of them, and neither has anybody behind for at least ten yards. Yet they were both photographed in the same spot at the same second.
The only possible explanations are:
1) One of the two is travelling faster than Usain Bolt can sprint
2) Scotland Yard has issued doctored CCTV images/timeline.
I am going with the Met issuing doctored images.
UPDATE
A number of people have pointed out a third logical possibility, that the photographs are not of the same place and they are coming through different though completely identical entry channels. The problem with that is the extreme synchronicity. You can see from the photos that the channel(s) are enclosed and quite long, and they would have had to enter different entrances to the channels. So it is remarkable they were at exactly the same point at the same time. Especially as one of them appears to be holding (wheeled?) luggage and one has only a shoulder bag.
I have traveled through Gatwick many times but cannot call to mind precisely where they are. Can anybody pinpoint the precise place in the airport? Before or after passport control? Before or after baggage collection? Before or after customs? The only part of the airport this looks like to me is shortly after leaving the plane after the bridge, and before joining the main gangway to passport control – in which case passengers are not split into separated channels at the stage this was taken. I can’t recall any close corridors as long as this after passport control. But I am open to correction.
