The two men who attacked Sergei Skripal by smearing nerve agent on his front door handle and who disposed of some of their Novichok in a way it was found and killed a woman have appeared on Russian state television station RT. In an interview, they admit being in Salisbury but “were there to visit the cathedral and Old Sarum [the Roman predecessor to the modern city]”. (Transcript from RT)
So patently laughable is their excuse, I am dropping my usual constraints and will not use the “alleged” etc wording that protect commentators here in the UK from the libel laws. In fact I invite them to return to the scene of their crimes, clear their names of the charges in the criminal courts, including the death of Dawn Sturgess and sue the ass off me (not that they would get much!) They will not, Putin would not allow it and anyway Russia refuses to extradite any of their citizens.
Just a reminder of the timeline of their “tourist visit” to Salisbury which is in the SW of England. It is well served by trains although the journey can be long if you have to go across London to get to the main rail terminus.
The pair arrived in the UK on March 2 using Russian passports in the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, which they claim are their real names. They returned to Moscow on Sunday March 4.
CCTV shows them at Gatwick Airport (apparently deplaning) at 16:22. From there they travelled to London Victoria arriving around 17:40.
They stayed at a “rather dingy” two star hotel in Bow, an area in eastern London on the Friday and Saturday nights. The hotel is a converted middle class home in a row of similar houses. The price of <£75 a night (£38 currently on Trip Advisor) puts it at the lowest end of the hotel market. I have seen it advertised (and dismissed it immediately) when friends have asked about visiting London. It’s only saving grace is that it almost next door to Bow Church DLR (light railway) station and Bow Road tube station, both stations are in TfL’s (Transport for London) Charge Zone 2.
The train from Waterloo (Zone 1) takes just over 90 minutes and a cheap day off-peak return currently costs £40.70 per ticket. The pair likely travelled from Bow Church, changing at Canary Wharf for the Jubilee Line direct to Waterloo. Alternatives from Bow Road are less convenient and take longer than that approximately 45 minute journey (I include transfer times taking account of the separation of the DLR and Jubilee line stations at Canary Wharf and the fact Waterloo Jubilee Line station is at the opposite side from the main line). A single ticket covering a Zones 1 and 2 journey costs from £2.40 each way.
They claim to have wanted to visit Old Sarum, the original Romano-British city as well as the Cathedral and Stonehenge on the Saturday but called off their trip because they “got wet”.
We wanted to walk around the city but since the whole city was covered with snow, we spent only 30 minutes there. We were all wet.
Police evidence shows on the Saturday they left the hotel and took TfL trains (the Independent refers only to “Bow” station) to Waterloo station, arriving at approximately 11.45am, where they caught a train to Salisbury, arriving at approximately 2.25pm. Old Sarum was open until 16:00 although entry stops 30 minutes earlier. The walk and bus ride from the rail station take about 20 minutes.
They then claim to have returned the following day to look at the Cathedral. Some of the interview sounds like it was lifted straight out of a guide book.
MS [“interviewer”]: What makes it so wonderful?
RB: It's a tourist city. They have a famous cathedral there, Salisbury Cathedral. It's famous throughout Europe and, in fact, throughout the world, I think. It's famous for its 123-meter spire. It's famous for its clock. It's the oldest working clock in the world.
MS: So, you traveled to Salisbury to see the clock?
AP: No, initially we planned to go to London and have some fun there. This time, it wasn't a business trip. Our plan was to spend some time in London and then to visit Salisbury. Of course, we wanted to do it all in one day. But when we got there, even our plane could not land on the first approach. That's because of all the havoc they had with transport in the UK on March 2 and 3. Because of heavy snowfall, nearly all the cities were paralyzed. We were unable to go anywhere.
The following day, they left Bow Station (the Independent does not specify) at 08:05 and are seen at Salisbury station at 11.48 The two were caught on CCTV walking along Wilton Road, Salisbury near to the Skripals’ home on Christie Miller Road (Google map) at 11:58. Wilton Road runs north-westward away from the city centre railway station. Old Sarum is to the north of the city. (Map). They were caught on Fisherton Street at 13:05 (see above) walking North towards the train station and away from the Cathedral area at what appears to be this location. They are seen at the station at 13:50 to catch a train which took them back to London at 16:45. They then get a train to the airport at 18:30. At 19:28 they go through passport control at London Heathrow airport. By then one is carrying a suitcase.
This is their account on RT of that return visit.
MS: Another try to do what?
AP: To go sightseeing.
RB: To see this famous cathedral. To visit Old Sarum.
MS: So, did you see it?
RB: Yes, we did.
AP: On March 4, we did. But again, by lunchtime, there was heavy rain with snow.
RB: For some reason, nobody talks about this fact.
Quite clearly from the timeline, it would have been difficult to visit both Old Sarum and the cathedral in the 67 minutes between their being seen at Wilton Road and being caught on camera at Fisherton Street.
Their story begs the question why they made the two day visit to the UK to specifically visit Salisbury yet they did not stay there. Instead they spent around double their hotel bill on train tickets both days. They can afford plane and train tickets but stay at a run-down hotel nowhere near the station they need for their planned trip? How often have they been to London if this “was not a business trip”. Where did they stay those times? What is their business that allows them to spend freely on travel but makes them stay at the cheapest hotel?
Are we supposed to believe that heavy rain and snow made them cut short the trip on Sunday? We know from the CCTV that the bigger one had gloves on the Saturday but seems to have lost them by the time they are photographed on the Sunday. The person they are seen walking past on Fisherton Street seems so unconcerned with the weather that she is not wearing a hat or holding an umbrella, even if the streets are wet. I would suggest that the reason their visit on Saturday was abandoned was because the weather meant that the Novichok would either be washed away or it was too cold for it to be fully effective in terms of transmission through the skin — if one was wearing gloves against the cold, it would be a good assumption Skripal would be too.
It is also unusual (but not impossible) that somebody would fly into one airport to the South of London and fly out from one to the West, unless of course someone wished to conceal their movements. Finally, why if all the trains were out as they claim, did they not abandon the Saturday trip?
One part of their interview might point to their having a knowledge of their own security forces:
RB: Yes, of course. We can't go out on the street because we are scared. We're afraid.
MS: What are you afraid of?
RB: We fear for our lives. And for the lives of our families and friends.
MS: So, you fear that the UK secret service will kill you or what?
RB: We just don’t know.
To use a British internet meme, MRDA!