Salisbury, Wiltshire UK saw the poisoning by novichok of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Sergei was a former Russian military officer and double agent working for the UK. In early March 2018, the two were poisoned by the deadly nerve agent. At the time the Guardian reported that Theresa May was furious and demanded accountability from Russia. In a later edition, the Guardian also noted that there were some people "of police interest." After investigating the case, police now say they have two suspects: Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

Theresa May says it was not a rogue novichok operation

CBS News reported that British Prime Minister Theresa May said in Parliament that she did not believe it was a "rogue" poisoning attempt. She noted that police believe the two people are working the "Russian military intelligence service known as the GRU." The two people arrived in the UK using Russian passports on an Aeroflot flight. They arrived some days before the poisoning that left a police officer, Sergei, and Yulia very ill for weeks.

No repatriation for Petrov and Boshirov

The government believes they have enough evidence to prosecute the pair.

However, as they are not in the UK at the moment they will be charged in absentia, according to the British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The charges are for conspiring to murder Skripal, "the attempted murder of both him and his daughter Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey." CPS also noted in their statement, that they would not apply for any type of repatriation. The government of Russia does not allow repatriation in terms of their constitution.

CCTV footage used to find suspects in Skripal poisoning

CCTV footage helped to identify the suspects. Investigators established that the men arrived at Gatwick Airport before booking into the City Stay hotel in east London. They also travelled to Salisbury ahead of the poisoning.

The footage showed them near the home of Skripal. The case leads police to suspect that after applying the novichok nerve agent poison to the door they left via train for Heathrow and departed the country.

USA stands by the UK in holding Russia accountable

Since the news broke, Woody Johnson, the US Ambassador to the UK tweeted that the USA would be "holding Russia accountable for its act of aggression on UK soil." Meanwhile, CBS reported that any use of chemical weapons is of concern to the USA.

Pictures of the suspects were released to the media. The photo in the tweet below was posted by Daniel Sandford of the BBC.

The novichok poisoning case was investigated thoroughly and Theresa May noted in her statement to Parliament on September 5, that "around 250 detectives have trawled through more than 11,000 hours of CCTV and taken more than 1,400 statements."