© Reuters'Alexander Petrov' and 'Ruslan Boshirov', are seen in an image handed out by the Metropolitan Police in London, Britain September 5, 2018
British police said the suspects were traveling on authentic Russian passports and had arrived in the UK days before the incident.
Neil Basu, the head of Counter Terrorism policing, said the two suspects were traveling under aliases but were around 40-years-old and had Russian passports.
Basu noted that traces of Novichok contamination were found in the London hotel room where the two men had stayed. He said they arrived in Britain on March 2 and left on March 4.
"Tests were carried out in the hotel room where the suspects had stayed. Two swabs showed contamination of Novichok of levels below that which would cause concern for public health," Basu added.
Comment: Former British military officer and security expert Charles Shoebridge makes a very important point regarding the "work" done in the Skripal case: Intelligence officers are highly trained in covering their tracks and leaving no evidence behind. What seems much more likely is that Western intelligence agents or individuals connected to them staged the scene to make it look like something that would lead investigators to a specific narrative, specifically that Russian agents were behind the Skripal attack.
Clearly the media and the official UK government is swallowing the narrative wholly. In response to this news, Britain has summoned Russia's charge d'affaires in London. Theresa May has declared to the world that the two suspects are "Russian intelligence officers". Shoebridge makes the astute point that May will use this opportunity strengthen her political standing within the UK government, so expect her to take a very strong stance and use the story to distract from the internal issues in the UK gov't.
Annie Machon, a former MI5 intelligence officer, told RT she found it suspicious that the inquiry into the Salisbury incident has effectively turned into this trial by media, based on "bits of evidence that may look pretty compelling but will never be tested in a real court of law."
"You know, even if it is finally proven that [the suspects] were GRU officers, there's high probability they may indeed be rogue - how would you know what the thinking was within the GRU?" she suggested, adding British and US intelligence agencies, for their part, do carry out covert operations without proper oversight.