The UK has indicted a third Russian intelligence agent in the 2018 investigation into the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in the south-west of England, a case which has soured relations between London and Moscow.

Sergei Fedotov, also known under the name of Denis Sergeyev, was notably charged with conspiracy to assassinate Sergei Skripal and attempted murder on the latter, his daughter Yulia and the police officer Nick Bailey who had been contaminated while intervening on the scene, a the police announced on Tuesday.

An arrest warrant for two Russians

Sergey Fedotov was also charged with possession and use of a chemical weapon and causing serious willful injury. Assistant Deputy Commissioner Dean Haydon, who led the counterterrorism police investigation into the Salisbury and Amesbury attacks, said in a statement that it was a "significant new development" in the investigation launched after the poisoning of the former Russian spy and his daughter on March 4, 2018. The former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury and hospitalized in serious condition.

They survived and now live in hiding under protection but their poisoning caused a collateral victim: Dawn Sturgess, 44, who died after spraying herself with what she thought was a perfume and which was in fact Novichok, contained in a flask picked up by his companion.

London accuses Moscow of being behind this poisoning and has previously issued a European arrest warrant against two Russians, Alexander Petrov and Rouslan Bochirov - possible pseudonyms -, suspected of having carried out the attack and presented as members of military intelligence (GRU).

No extradition possible

Sergey Fedotov is the third man identified by British police who said they were looking for them. Arrest warrants are in place for all three. Nick Price, head of the Special Crimes and Counterterrorism Division at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the UK prosecution service, said there would be no request for Sergei Fedotov's extradition to Russia. "We will not ask Russia for the extradition of Sergei Fedotov, because the Russian Constitution does not allow the extradition of its own nationals," he said. "If this position were to change, then an extradition request will be made."

Police say Sergei Fedotov arrived in the UK at around 11 a.m. on March 2, 2018 on a Moscow-London flight, about four hours before the arrival of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Bochirov from Moscow to London.

Investigators believe the three met on several occasions in central London over the weekend, before Sergei Fedotov left the UK on March 4, 2018 on a flight to Moscow from the London Heathrow Airport.

The hotel where he stayed has been identified and tests have been carried out in the room where he stayed but no trace of Novichok and no risk to the public have been identified, police said.

Diplomatic relations at their lowest

Investigators also determined that Alexander Petrov, Ruslan Bochirov and Sergei Fedotov previously worked together for the GRU in operations outside of Russia. They believe that Fedotov was using a pseudonym during his visit to the UK and has been identified as "Denis Sergeyev". Denis Sergeyev had already been identified by the investigative website Bellingcat, in June 2019, as a major-general of the military intelligence service (GRU) who led the operation targeting Sergei Skripal. This poisoning had caused reciprocal expulsions of diplomats unprecedented since the end of the Cold War between Russia and the West.

Despite London's conclusions to this effect, Moscow has always denied any involvement in the Skripal affair.

But two and a half years later, relations are still at their lowest between the two countries and the British government sees Russia as a major threat to the United Kingdom.

In March, the Russian ambassador in London declared that political relations between London and Moscow were "practically dead".

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"With our investigations, we want to have the most impact possible," says Eliot Higgins, founder of the Bellingcat investigation site

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