Skripal suspects: 'We were just tourists in Salisbury'

Two men named as suspects in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in the UK have said they were merely tourists.

The men, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, told the RT channel that they went sightseeing in Salisbury but returned to London within an hour.

They are accused by the UK of trying to kill Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March, BBC News reports.

The UK has described them as agents of Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU.

"The town was covered by this slush. We got wet, took the nearest train and came back" to London, they told RT, Russia's state-run international broadcaster.

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said there is enough evidence to charge the men, who are understood to have travelled to London from Moscow on 2 March on Russian passports.

Two days later, police say, they applied the military-grade Russian nerve agent Novichok to the front door of Mr Skripal's home in the Wiltshire city of Salisbury. They returned to Russia later that day.

Mr Skripal and his daughter fell critically ill but recovered after weeks of intensive care in hospital. Their current whereabouts are being kept secret.

After the RT interview was aired a UK government spokesperson reiterated that "these men are officers of the Russian military intelligence service - the GRU", and again accused Moscow of "obfuscation and lies".