Salisbury Novichok poisoning: UK directly blames Vladimir Putin for attack

- Action stepped up against Russian 'dirty money' - Russians targeted in 'denial of assets' activity - Government to meet Russians at UN National Security council later
Smiling 'killers': Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov in Salisbury
Metropolitan Police

Britain today directly blamed Vladimir Putin for the botched Salisbury poisoning attack as action was being stepped up against Russian “dirty money” in London.

UK investigators have 140 “denial of assets” inquiries on-going which include a “significant” number of Russian citizens, said a Whitehall source.

Security minister Ben Wallace said some individuals could be arrested during the crackdown to “drive ‘dirty money’ out of London”.

The Government was today set to make the case at the United Nations Security Council for a united and tougher response to aggression from Moscow.

Mr Wallace also signalled that British police identified weeks ago the two GRU military intelligence officers blamed for the Novichok attacks but had kept this secret in the hope that they might travel outside of Russia and be arrested.

He branded the two agents “clowns” who had damaged their country’s reputation with the failed assassination operation.

Two men named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are said to have been behind the attack
PA

The UK and its allies would “push back” against “Russian malign activity”, Mr Wallace added, with some of the action being covert and other more public, including countering cyber attacks.

He stressed that the response would not be “thuggish” and “destructive” but within the “rule of law” to show the cost to Russia of its actions.

The UK is to push back against 'malign' Russian activity
Getty Images

However, Britain has faced difficulties in persuading some other EU nations to front up more strongly against Moscow.

But the Government sought to pile pressure on the Kremlin after dramatically yesterday naming two GRU officers - who used the aliases of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - as the suspected hit squad who sought to assassinate former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, in Salisbury with military grade Novichok nerve agent in March.

Police published a series of CCTV pictures of Petrov and Boshirov and also the fake perfume bottle which is believed to have been used in the attack on the Skripals, recklessly discarded, before being picked up by Charlie Rowley, 48, and used by his partner Dawn Sturgess, 44, who died after being poisoned by the nerve agent.

Pressed on whether Mr Putin bore responsibility for the Novichok attacks, Mr Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Ultimately he does, insofar as he is president of the Russian Federation and it is his government that controls, funds and directs the military intelligence - that’s the GRU - via his ministry of defence.

“I don’t think that anyone can ever say that Mr Putin isn’t in control of his state.”

Mr Wallace also made clear that action is being stepped up against Russian “dirty money” in London, with more unexplained wealth orders, making individuals disclose where they got their fortune, in the “pipeline”, stressing “watch this space over the next months”.

Signalling tougher action against foreigners with illicitly obtained wealth, he added that the Government wanted to ensure that “the ‘dirty money’ that often accompanies some of these people is driven out of London and certainly in some cases hopefully people will be arrested.”

He also criticised the “tradecraft” of the GRU agents which had allowed them to get caught, for a timeline of their operation be pieced together and for their pictures now to be beamed around the globe.

“They do care that they have looked like clowns. They were sent like a soldier to do a mission,” he told LBC Radio.

“They failed in that mission...They have ultimately damaged the reputation of their own agency and the Russian state.

“If it was supposed to be a sophisticated Jason Bourne-type hit, they travelled on direct flights...more Johnny English than James Bond.”

Russia has denied all involvement in the Wiltshire poisonings and has urged Britain to allow it join the investigation into the Novichok poisonings.

But a Whitehall source said: “We don’t need the Russian State’s help in identifying their own assassins.”

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