Vladimir Putin has hit back after Britain named two Russian spies behind a chemical attack

VLADIMIR Putin said on Wednesday that Russia has identified the two men that Britain named as suspects in the poisoning of a former Russian spy, and that there is “nothing criminal” about them. 

Britain last week named two alleged agents of Russia’s military intelligence agencyin absentia with the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

They released images of the two men, who they alleged flew to the UK for a weekend in March to kill Sergei Skripal with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent.

Traces of Novichok contamination were found in the London hotel room where the men stayed.

Britain has blamed the Russian government for the attack, a claim that Moscow has vehemently denied.

Speaking at a panel of an economic conference in Russia’s Far East Putin insisted they do not work for the military.

“We know who these people are, we have found them,” Mr Putin said. “There is nothing special or criminal about it, I can assure you.”

Asked by the panel’s moderator if the men work for the military, Putin replied that they are “civilians” and called on the men to come forward.

“I would like to call on them so that they can hear us today: They should go to some media outlet. I hope they will come forward and tell about themselves.”

Skripal’s daughter Yulia and a police officer who attended the scene also fell ill in the case, which has caused the biggest East-West diplomatic expulsions since the Cold War.

A woman later died from Novichok poisoning after her husband brought home a contaminated bottle of counterfeit perfume.

After the Skripals were poisoned March 4, Britain and more than two dozen other countries expelled a total of 150 Russian spies working under diplomatic cover.

Russia kicked out a similar number of those countries’ envoys.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the use of a chemical weapon in the city of Salisbury, which left a British woman dead and four people, including Skripal and his daughter, seriously ill, was carried out by officers of the GRU intelligence service and almost certainly approved “at a senior level of the Russian state.”

Health authorities said the Skripals were making a good recovery.

- with AAP, AFP