Spy poison case: Russian suspects say they were in UK as tourists

This still taken from CCTV and issued by the Metropolitan Police in London on Wednesday Sept. 5, 2018, shows Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov at Salisbury train station on March 3, 2018. (AP)
Updated 14 September 2018
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Spy poison case: Russian suspects say they were in UK as tourists

  • Britain dismisses the claim as a “blatant lie” and an “insult”
  • id they did not work for Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU, as Britain claims

MOSCOW: Two men accused by London of poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal told Russian media on Thursday they visited the British city of Salisbury as tourists and denied having anything to do with the murder attempt.

Britain dismissed the claim as a “blatant lie” and an “insult”.

Speaking in an interview with the head of the Kremlin-backed RT news network, the pair confirmed they were the men whose pictures British authorities released this month.

British security services had named the men as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, but said these were likely to be aliases.

In the 25-minute interview the two said these were their real names but said they did not work for Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU, as Britain claims.

RT said the men sounded distressed and were sweating as they spoke.

The men seemed to be around 40 years old and wore almost identical dark blue jumpers. They looked well-built and Boshirov wore what looked like a red Kabbalah bracelet.

The TV station recorded the interview Wednesday evening, just hours after President Vladimir Putin said Russia had identified the men sought by Britain and urged them to address the media.

“They are civilians,” Putin said, adding there was nothing criminal about them.

London believes that Putin personally sanctioned the attack.

“The lies and blatant fabrications in this interview given to a Russian state-sponsored TV station are an insult to the public's intelligence,” Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said.

"More importantly they are deeply offensive to the victims and loved ones of this horrific attack. Sadly, it's what we've come to expect.

Skripal’s attempted assassination has drawn comparisons with the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko with highly radioactive polonium in London in 2006.

Russia has refused to extradite the two men Britain suspects of killing Litvinenko, and one of them, Andrei Lugovoi, went on to become a member of parliament.

British police said it was aware of the statement “by two men” and refused further details.

Petrov and Boshirov confirmed they arrived in Britain on March 2 and said they traveled to Salisbury the next day to see the sights.

They left after no more than an hour because of poor weather and heavy snow, but returned on March 4.

British authorities said the suspects traveled to Salisbury twice to get ready for the attack and then carry it out.

“Friends have been telling us for a long time we should visit this beautiful city,” said the broad-shouldered Petrov.

“We went there to see Stonehenge, Old Sarum, but we couldn’t do it because there was muddy slush everywhere,” he added, referring to local landmarks.

Boshirov, who sported a goatee, denied they knew anything about Skripal or the location of his house.

“We walked around and enjoyed this English Gothic architecture,” he said.

They denied trying to kill Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the Soviet-designed Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury on March 4.

British investigators say the poison was transported in a fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle and sprayed onto the handle of Skripal’s door.

“Is it not silly for decent lads to have women’s perfume?” Boshirov asked.

“The customs are checking everything. We didn’t have it.”

They said they were entrepreneurs but did not want to divulge details that could hurt their business which they said was linked to sports nutritional supplements.

They said that they had previously traveled to Europe for business and pleasure.

The pair complained their lives had become a “nightmare” and they could no longer watch the news and urged journalists to leave them alone.

“We’re afraid of going out, we fear for ourselves, our lives and lives of our loved ones,” Boshirov said. “We are tired.”

When RT editor Margarita Simonyan asked the pair why they traveled together, implying they might be a gay couple, the men said their private lives were off limits to the media.

“This is not an interrogation,” Boshirov said.

Simonyan said the men had contacted her on her cellphone.

Boshirov and Petrov said they called her because they needed protection and would like an apology from Britain.

The pair said that they had never dealt with the media before and if Putin had not urged them to speak out they would have recorded a video statement.

Social networks ran amok, with many deriding what they said was a flimsy attempt to cover the tracks.

“The Spy Who Went Home Because It Was Cold,” quipped Twitter user Ben Stanley.

Others suggested that Moscow had essentially thrown its intelligence agents under the bus.

“Unlike the murderers of Litvinenko,” wrote Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the US think-tank Atlantic Council, “these two men are sent through the meat grinders.”

“How can the GRU allow their obedient officers to be ridiculed like this?” he added.


Merz says NATO spending boost to counter Russia — not please Trump

Updated 5 sec ago
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Merz says NATO spending boost to counter Russia — not please Trump

  • Merz has been racing to build up Germany’s long-neglected armed forces, with the aim of turning them into the ‘strongest conventional army’ in Europe

BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz insisted a pledge by NATO allies to boost defense spending at a “historic” summit starting on Tuesday would not just aim to please US President Donald Trump.
“We are not doing this, as some claim, to do the United States and its president a favor,” he told the German parliament before setting off for the gathering in The Hague.
“We are doing this based on our own observations and convictions. Russia, above all, is actively and aggressively threatening security and freedom” across Europe, he added.
“We have to fear that Russia will continue its war beyond Ukraine.”
The summit has been viewed as heavily focused on keeping Trump happy after he made comments that sparked concern about Washington’s commitment to NATO and insisted that other member states spend at least five percent of their GDP on defense.
NATO’s 32 countries have thrashed out a compromise deal to dedicate 3.5 percent to core military spending by 2035, and 1.5 percent to broader security-related areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure.
On Monday, Europe’s biggest economy revealed plans to reach the 3.5 percent level for core spending six years early — in 2029 — with the vast extra outlays necessary made possible after Germany eased its rules on taking on debt.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday that he would head to the NATO summit with the message that “external security and defense capability are once again an absolute priority in (German) government policy.”
“We are bringing about a historic turnaround in defense spending.”
On the summit, he said there were “good signs” about “the broad consensus on how to proceed... I see no reason to assume that we will be given the cold shoulder.”
Since taking office in May, Merz has been racing to build up Germany’s long-neglected armed forces, with the aim of turning them into the “strongest conventional army” in Europe — a radical shift in a country with strong pacifist traditions due to its dark wartime past.
A drive has been launched to boost military personnel, which aims to attract 11,000 fresh recruits this year alone — and Pistorius has suggested conscription, which was halted in Germany in 2011, could be reintroduced if too few people sign up voluntarily.
Germany is also building up a permanent military brigade in Lithuania — the country’s first such overseas deployment since World War II — to bolster NATO’s eastern flank against Russia.


Vietnam aims to sign nuclear power plant deal with Russia in August

Updated 46 min 12 sec ago
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Vietnam aims to sign nuclear power plant deal with Russia in August

  • The move follows Vietnam’s restart of plans to develop nuclear power plants
  • It is expected to be online between 2030 and 2035

HANOI: Vietnam’s government said on Tuesday it aims to sign an agreement with its Russian counterpart in August to build the Southeast Asian country’s first nuclear power plant.

Site clearance for development of the plant in Ninh Thuan province is to be completed by the end of this year, the government said in a statement.

The move follows Vietnam’s restart of plans to develop nuclear power plants that were suspended nearly a decade ago, as part of its efforts to ramp up its power generation capacity to support its fast-growing economy.

The government has previously said it expected the first nuclear power plants with a combined capacity of up to 6.4 gigawatts to be online between 2030 and 2035.

The government said on Tuesday it has told the finance ministry, central bank, state energy firm Petrovietnam and utility firm EVN to work with related parties on loans for the project.


Indonesian researchers unearth 500,000-year-old elephant fossils in Java

Updated 24 June 2025
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Indonesian researchers unearth 500,000-year-old elephant fossils in Java

  • Researchers say found elephant fossils may be almost complete 
  • Central Java is also location of archaeological site Sangiran, where ‘Java Man’ was found

Jakarta: Indonesian researchers have discovered fossils of a prehistoric elephant in Central Java, which they estimate are around 500,000 years old. 

The fossils were found in Patiayam, an archaeological site and mountainous area situated on the border of the Kudus and Pati regencies in Central Java, where, throughout the years, ancient animal fossils have been found.

In 2024, a collaborative team organized by the Center for Prehistory and Austronesian Studies, the Dharma Bakti Lestari Foundation and the National Research and Innovation Agency, known locally as BRIN, launched a research project at the site to explore fossil possibilities. 

Though the initial discovery was made then, researchers postponed the project until this year and expanded the site of excavation, which is still ongoing. 

“Based on the geological formation of the site where it was found, we estimate that the fossils are at least 500,000 years old, give or take. We have yet to conduct a direct dating of the fossils, so this is based on a relative dating of the soil layer,” Mohammad Ruly Fauzi, researcher at CPAS and BRIN, told Arab News. 

“We have been able to identify that these belong to an elephas type, but not the specific species … What’s clear is that this is a very big elephant, nothing like elephants today …. It’s prehistoric, not early historic period.”

He said the excavation has made about 50 percent progress and that the elements found so far make up the front part of an elephant. 

“It’s interesting because this is shaping up to be an almost complete fossil … They are all situated pretty closely.” 

Once the excavation is completed, the fossils will be preserved as part of a collection at the Patiayam Archaeological Museum. The discovery might help Patiayam gain recognition as a cultural heritage site, Fauzi added. 

“Every site has its own unique qualities, but Patiayam site is particularly interesting and very deserving to gain status as a national cultural heritage site in our opinion … This research can help serve as a foundation for officials to decide,” he said. 

Central Java, where Patiayam is located, is also home to the Sangiran Early Man Site, a UNESCO World Heritage site renowned for its significant collection of Homo erectus fossils, dating from 1.1 million to 800,000 years ago, including the “Java Man.” 


Ukraine has cleared 20 percent of mined land, PM says

Updated 24 June 2025
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Ukraine has cleared 20 percent of mined land, PM says

KYIV: Ukraine has intensified efforts to clear land mines and has cut the affected area to around 137,000 square km (53,000 square miles), a 20 percent reduction from the end of 2022, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday.
Most of the remaining mined areas are farmland, Shmyhal added.
Ukraine is a global major grain grower but it reduced harvests sharply after Russia’s 2022 invasion left large areas occupied and mined.
Shmyhal said about 9,000 people from 112 specialized companies are now involved in mine clearance.
Military analysts say Ukraine needs at least 10 years to demine all territories.


India defense minister heads to China summit

Updated 24 June 2025
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India defense minister heads to China summit

  • Rajnath Singh will join fellow regional defense ministers in China’s Qingdao city for SCO summit starting Wednesday 
  • He will call for joint, consistent efforts to eliminate “terrorism” and extremism in the region, says Indian defense ministry 

NEW DELHI: Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to China this week for talks with his regional counterparts, New Delhi said Tuesday.

Ties between the world’s two most populous nations have improved in recent months, after hitting a low in 2020 over a deadly clash between their troops on the Himalayan border.

Singh will join fellow defense ministers in the eastern city of Qingdao for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit starting Wednesday.

He will “outline India’s vision toward achieving greater international peace & security, call for joint & consistent efforts to eliminate terrorism & extremism in the region,” a defense ministry statement said.

Singh will also hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from China and Russia, which are alliance members alongside Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.

Ahead of the two-day SCO meeting, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval held talks in Beijing with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi.

Doval “underscored the need to promote the overall development of the India-China bilateral relations,” New Delhi said Monday.

Wang said relations have “seen some positive developments” since the two countries’ leaders met last year, China’s foreign ministry said.

Beijing has granted permission to Indian pilgrims wishing to trek to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a site holy to Hindus and Buddhists, for the first time since the deadly 2020 clash.

The rival countries have also agreed to expedite resuming direct flights.