Novichok attack suspects gave revealing TV interview

The men were captured on CCTV in Salisbury visiting the city the day before an the day the ex-spy was poisoned

Key suspects believed to be involved in the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning took part in a revealing Russian TV interview, an inquiry has been told.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, gave evidence on Wednesday to the inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess.

Nobody has been charged for Ms Sturgess's death after she came into contact with Novichok in 2018, but suspects have been charged for the attempted murder of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The Kremlin has always denied involvement in the poisonings.

The inquiry was shown 25 minutes from an interview from Russia Today with suspects Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov. These were aliases, with their real names later revealed to be Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga.

At the time, the interview became famous after the pair talked about seeing the 123m metre spire in Salisbury.

• Who was Dawn Sturgess and how was she poisoned?

• Justice for Novichok victims 'unlikely', says Theresa May

Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov are aliases but were the identities used to refer to the men in the inquiry

A Christmas gift of a chocolate Salisbury Cathedral was also offered from Russia Today.

Commander Murphy told the hearing that to call their appearance a surprise was a "slight understatement".

"It was quite a shocking thing to see and unexpected, but equally for various reasons quite welcome for them to go on TV like that," he said.

Their interview was used to help investigators confirm it was them in CCTV pictures.

The pair also shared information about their potential movements, which police used in their investigations.

The inquiry has been considering the interview as part of a disinformation campaign from Russia - something Commander Murphy said had been seen previously, such as in the Litvinenko inquiry.

He said that from the "very start" senior members of Russia's political system had made comments seeking "to distance them from any involvement in what was happening".

It was suggested it had been conducted by the UK to be able to blame Russia "as part of a sort of bizarre and surreptitious intelligence operation of some variety", he added.

He said that the television interview was the same format, suggesting there were "alternative explanations for the things we were saying".

The inquiry has been hearing more detail about how the true identities of the suspects were uncovered.

It involved a lot of inconsistencies in visa applications, photographs, financial documents, bank details and employment history.

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