"In an instantly infamous appearance on Russian state TV, two men going by the names of Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, claiming to work in sports nutrition, declared they had visited the wonderful city twice in one weekend to see Stonehenge and the famous Salisbury Cathedral ... known for its 123-metre spire. Put off by mild snow, which they said had left a muddy slush everywhere, the men returned to their dingy London hotel and returned again the next day, they claimed."
"At the heart of a mire of geopolitical tensions, the pair stood accused of tearing lives asunder in the sleepy English county, following the first use of a nerve agent in a European city since the Second World War. Dawn Sturgess died after spraying the perfume bottle containing the nerve agent on her wrist (Metropolitan Police) The chemical deployed in an apparent assassination attempt would eventually cause the death of a British citizen, and the traumatic hospitalisations of several others."
In 2014 Salisbury drew incredulous national press after making Lonely Planet's top 10 cities. Four years later two men, Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, appeared on Russian state TV claiming to have visited twice in one weekend to see Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral, blaming mild snow for a brief visit. The press mocked the explanation as laughable. The pair were later accused of involvement in the first use of a nerve agent in a European city since World War Two. The exposure caused hospitalisations, killed Dawn Sturgess after she sprayed a contaminated perfume bottle, and led to the discovery of Sergei and Yulia Skripal poisoned on a park bench.
Read at www.independent.co.uk
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]