Russian Embassies In The Hague, Bern Not Commenting On Reports About Salisbury Suspects

PARIS/GENEVA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2018) The Russian Embassies in the Hague and Bern refused on Friday to comment on media reports that Russian nationals Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, suspects named by London in the Salisbury poisoning case, spent some time in custody in the Netherlands for spying in the Swiss town of Spiez.

In early September, Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger and the Dutch NRC Handelsblad reported about two Russians allegedly intending to spy on a lab in the Swiss city of Spiez that had been investigating chemical attacks in Syria and the attempted poisoning in the UK city of Salisbury. Neither the outlets nor Swiss and Dutch officials have linked these Russians to Petrov and Boshirov. However, UK-based group Bellingcat and The Insider media outlet later reported that the detainees were in fact Petrov and Boshirov.

"We are not commenting on this issue," a representative of the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands told Sputnik.

The Russian Embassy in Switzerland also refused to comment on the matter.

Last week, the Russian Embassy in Switzerland called the media reports on alleged Russian spies "absurd" and described them as "another attempt to fuel Russophobic sentiments." Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that Moscow would be ready to "intelligibly" comment on the matter only after receiving the facts.

Petrov and Boshirov are accused by London of perpetrating the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The Russians told the RT broadcaster that while they did in fact visit Salisbury, they only came to see the famous cathedral and Old Sarum hillfort.