The British government and the European Union have imposed sanctions against senior officials from Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, over the agency’s suspected poisoning attack on a former Russian spy in southern England last year.
Reports said the UK-EU action announced on Monday targeted Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, the two men introduced by British authorities as members of the GRU who traveled to the southern English town of Salisbury to poison Sergei Skripal.
Igor Olegovich Kostyukov, the GRU chief, and his deputy, Vladimir Stepanovich Alexseyev, were also blacklisted over their role in the attack which British officials claim was carried out using a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent called Novichok.
Russia has consistently denied any involvement in the attack which left Skripal and his daughter Yulia in need of special medical treatment.
The two Russians believed to have carried out the attack on Skripals…