President Vladimir Putin says there's "nothing criminal" about two men identified by British police as suspects in the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal with a military-grade nerve agent.
"We know who they are, we have found them," Putin told an economic forum in the presence of Japan's Shinzo Abe and China's Xi Jinping in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
"They are civilians, of course," he said, apparently responding to a claim by the British authorities that the two suspects are members of Russia's military intelligence agency.
Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov are charged with using novichok to poison an ex-spy and his daughter. Source: AAP
The Russian president called on the two men to contact the media and "tell about themselves."
British prosecutors issued a warrant for the suspects' arrest last week.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said last week that the two men who carried out the nerve agent attack were Russian spies.
Prosecutors announced charges against Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov for trying to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in the city of Salisbury on March 4.
May told MPs the pair "are officers of the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU" - adding the attack had been sanctioned from higher up.
