Vladimir Putin is ultimately responsible for the Salisbury nerve agent attack that left three people fighting for their life and killed an innocent mother, a Government minister has told ITV News. Security Minister Ben Wallace says that while Russia's intelligence service carried out the attack, it is President Putin who is "ultimately responsible for his government's actions". He added: "It is safe to say that it was not a freelance operation by the GRU or operatives or anything else, it was clearly supported by the wider Russian state." He went on to criticise the Russian intelligence service, saying the failed operation proves "the GRU can't really run a bath". The Kremlin has responded to the allegations it was behind the attack, saying it will not investigate the two men named as suspects. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said on that Theresa May’s accusations are "unacceptable" and that "no one in the Russian leadership" has anything to do with the poisoning. Mr Peskov added Russia "has no reasons" to investigate the two individuals charged on Wednesday because Britain has not asked for legal assistance on the case.

It comes as the UN Security Council waits to discuss the attack, a meeting where British and Russian officials will come face-to-face. The UK will brief the council on evidence relating to the Russian suspects, hours after Theresa May said the Moscow agents were behind the deadly poisoning. Police and prosecutors announced on Wednesday they had enough evidence to charge the men, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, over the poisoning in March. The Prime Minister told MPs it was carried out by two Russian spies and sanctioned at a “senior level” by Vladimir Putin’s regime. She told the Commons investigations have concluded that the two suspects are members of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, and it was not a “rogue operation”. Commenting on the failed assassination attempt that resulted in the death of an innocent mother, Mr Wallace said it was a "proper planned deliberate assault carried out by a couple of duffers".

He added: "If it wasn't so tragic, the death of Dawn Sturgess, it would be almost comical, they were so reckless. "Their amateurism endangered the lives of Britons, casting aside Novichok nerve agent recklessly put at risk and did ultimately lead to the death of a British citizen." As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia will be represented at Thursday’s meeting – called by Britain to update members on progress in the Salisbury investigation – alongside UK allies such as the US and France.

Australia on Thursday said it was in “lock step” with the UK on the importance of holding Russia to account over the “heinous” attack, although it is not currently a council member. Mrs May did not explicitly blame the Kremlin for authorising the attempted assassination, although senior Conservatives directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of approving the operation.

Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said there was “no doubt it was state ordered and President Putin bears responsibility for a war-like act”. The charge d’affaires at Russia’s London embassy was summoned to the Foreign Office for a dressing-down by an official following Mrs May’s statement. The PM told MPs the UK would push for new sanctions against Russians responsible for cyber attacks, additional listings under the existing regime and promised to work with intelligence allies to “counter the threat posed by the GRU”.

While the suspects have been named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Neil Basu said it is likely they were travelling under fake aliases. The pair, believed to be aged around 40, are thought to be officers for the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU. The GRU is a highly disciplined organisation with a well-established chain of command, considered a threat to British citizens and allies.. The Prime Minister claimed the GRU was ordered by a member of the Russian state to send officers to the UK to carry out the attack. The two suspects spent two days in the UK before arriving back in Moscow.

Former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left critically ill after being exposed to the military grade nerve agent Novichok in March. The alleged perpetrators were identified in a dramatic joint police and Crown Prosecution Service press conference. Detectives believe it is likely the pair, thought to be aged around 40, travelled under aliases and that Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names. Prosecutors deem it futile to apply to Russia for the extradition of the two men, but a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained and the authorities are also seeking the assistance of Interpol. Detectives believe the front door of Mr Skripal’s Salisbury home was contaminated with Novichok on Sunday March 4.</s>British Security Minister Ben Wallace said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "ultimate" responsibility for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent in England in March.

London has accused two members of Russian military intelligence for using Novichok to try to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southwestern English city of Salisbury.

Asked if Putin had responsibility, Wallace said: "Ultimately he does in so far as he is the president of the Russian Federation and it is his government that controls, funds and directs the military intelligence, the GRU, via his ministry of defence."

He told BBC radio: "I don't think anyone can ever say that Mr Putin isn't in control of his state.... And the GRU is without doubt not rogue.

"It is led, linked to both the senior members of the Russian general staff and the defence minister, and through that into the Kremlin and the president's office."

Britain has previously pointed the finger at Moscow for the March 4 attack, sparking furious denials.

In the aftermath, Britain and its allies expelled dozens of Russian diplomats, prompting Russian to respond in kind. The United States also imposed fresh sanctions over the attack.

The Skripals survived the poisoning but remnants of Novichok found in a fake perfume bottle were picked up by a local man weeks later and given to his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, who later died.

British prosecutors said Wednesday they had enough evidence to charge Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with conspiracy to murder Skripal, attempted murder and the use of a banned chemical weapon.

They said they would not formally demand their extradition, as Russia does not extradite its citizens, but have obtained a European Arrest Warrant for the pair.</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption On the trail of Russians Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who UK police carried out a nerve agent attack in Salisbury in March 2018

Vladimir Putin must take responsibility for the Salisbury Novichok attack, UK security minister Ben Wallace has said.

Mr Wallace told the BBC "ultimately, of course", Russia's president was behind the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March.

The Kremlin, which denies involvement, said it was "unacceptable" to make accusations against the leadership.

The UK has named two men believed to be from Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, as the main suspects.

Theresa May told the Commons on Wednesday that the suspects had entered the UK on Russian passports using the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

She said the poisoning was "not a rogue operation" and was "almost certainly" approved at a senior level of the Russian state.

Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned with Novichok on 4 March. Det Sgt Nick Bailey also fell ill after responding to the incident in Salisbury.

Prosecutors say there is sufficient evidence to charge the two men, and UK officials are due to brief the UN Security Council on the investigation on Thursday.

Police have also linked the attack to a separate Novichok poisoning on 30 June in Amesbury, that led to the death of 44-year-old mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess.

Meeting with the UN

Britain called Thursday's meeting of the UN Security Council, of which Russia is a permanent member, along with China and UK allies the US and France.

Mr Wallace said the UK must use the meeting to "maintain the pressure, to say the behaviour we have seen is totally unacceptable".

He said Mr Putin's government "controls, funds and directs the military intelligence - that's the GRU", adding that nobody could say the Russian leader was "not in control of his state".

BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said that alongside the meeting, it was thought there would be less visible activity including covert work by British intelligence to disrupt the GRU.

Mrs May has also said Britain will push for the EU to agree new sanctions against Russia.

Ahead of the UN meeting, Australia said it was "in lock step with the UK on the importance of holding Russia to account" over the "dangerous and deliberate act".

What might the UK do to disrupt the GRU?

Analysis by BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera

The most effective measure, officials claim, may have already been taken in expelling suspected Russian intelligence officers in the UK and from allied countries.

Names will also be shared to prevent them being posted to each other's nations.

There will be the attempt to use publicity and exposure to make it harder for its officers to travel and operate.

Other measures against Russia more generally, it is hoped, might also push the Kremlin to restrain the GRU.

Finally, there will be a more clandestine element.

This is unlikely to mean "cyber-war", rather it will be attempts to disrupt the GRU's own cyber-operations to try to make its life harder.

Police appeal

Image copyright Metropolitan Police Image caption In the evening of 4 March, CCTV showed the pair at Heathrow Airport, where they were to board a flight to Moscow

Police are asking the public for information about a suitcase seen in the CCTV image of the two suspects at Heathrow Airport on Sunday 4 March, before they flew to Moscow.

In the image, Mr Petrov can be seen pushing a hard dark-coloured wheelie suitcase with a green stripe of the size that can fit into hand luggage lockers.

It does not appear that he arrived in the country with the suitcase.

Image copyright Metropolitan Police Image caption The pair are seen in the centre of Salisbury heading towards the train station

Counter terrorism officers are also interested in any information the public can give them about the grey and olive backpack that Mr Petrov and Mr Boshirov were both seen wearing at different times on the Sunday.

Moscow reaction: 'Go to hell'

By BBC Monitoring

Responding to the fresh accusations, the Kremlin's media machine resorted to its usual tactic: a combination of denials and sarcasm.

"Don't laugh," said a talk-show host on state TV, delivering the latest news from London.

The foreign ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, put in an appearance herself to accuse the UK of fabricating the Skripal case. "This whole story was created to punish Russia... to introduce sanctions," she said on Rossiya 1 TV.

"A detective story" and "an absurd political thriller" were some of the epithets used by Russian news bulletins, which also claimed that Britain's allegations were not backed up by a shred of evidence.

At the same time, they dismissed the suspects' photographs released by London as crude fakery.

"Put evidence on the table or go to hell," said one commentator on Russian state TV.

The suspects' movements

Image copyright Metropolitan Police Image caption Police released CCTV showing the two men arriving at Gatwick Airport on 2 March

Image copyright Metropolitan Police Image caption They were seen arriving at Salisbury station the following day for what officers said was reconnaissance

The Metropolitan Police said the two men arrived at Gatwick Airport from Moscow on 2 March and stayed at the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road, east London.

On 4 March they travelled to Salisbury - having also visited for reconnaissance the previous day - where Mr Skripal's front door was contaminated with Novichok.

Image caption Yulia and Sergei Skripal fell ill after Mr Skripal's front door was sprayed with Novichok

Officers believe a modified perfume bottle was used to spray the door.

The pair flew from Heathrow to Moscow later that night.

Image copyright PA Image caption The hotel in east London, where police say Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov stayed before they travelled to Salisbury, is "open for business as usual"

While traces of Novichok were found in the London hotel room, police said there was no risk to other guests who were staying at the hotel at the time.

Officers want to hear from anyone who was a guest there from 4 March to 4 May.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Petrov and Boshirov should be charged with offences including conspiracy to murder; attempted murder and the use and possession of Novichok contrary to the Chemical Weapons Act.

However, it is not applying to Russia for the extradition of the two men, because Russia does not extradite its nationals.

But a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained in case the pair travel to the EU.

Amesbury poisoning

Image copyright Facebook Image caption Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were poisoned by Novichok

Police said Ms Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rowley were later exposed to Novichok in Amesbury, near Salisbury, after handling a contaminated container, labelled as Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume.

Mr Rowley told police he found the box containing the small bottle and an applicator - all found to be counterfeit - in a charity bin.

He tried to put the two parts together and got some of the contents on himself. His partner Ms Sturgess applied some of the contents to her wrists and became unwell.

The bottle, with a modified nozzle, had contained a "significant amount" of Novichok, Scotland Yard said.

Image copyright AFP/Met Police Image caption The counterfeit perfume bottle recovered from Mr Rowley's home and the box police say it came in.

The charges Petrov and Boshirov would face currently relate only to the Salisbury attack. Police said officers are continuing to work with the Crown Prosecution Service on the Amesbury incident.</s>Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin bears ultimate responsibility for an nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury earlier this year, Britain's security minister said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Theresa May said police and prosecutors now believe the attack on Sergei Skripal was carried out by two Russian military intelligence officers who were almost certainly acting with the approval of senior Russian officials.

Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement and some Russian officials have suggested the British security services carried out that attack to stoke anti-Moscow hysteria.

Asked whether President Putin bears responsibility, Ben Wallace told BBC radio: "Ultimately he does in so far as he is the president of the Russian Federation and it is his government that controls, funds and directs the military intelligence."</s>The U.K. will take measures to “maintain the pressure on Russia,” Britain’s security minister said Thursday, after British intelligence services found the suspects in the nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy in Salisbury were employed directly by the Russia state.

“We retaliate in our way, we’re not the Russians,” Security Minister Ben Wallace told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme on Thursday, adding that countermeasures would take place “both in the overt and covert space, within the rule of law.”

His comments come after Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday blamed the Russian military for coordinating and authorizing the “barbaric” chemical weapons attack on former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in March, saying the suspects were officers from the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.

“I’m afraid we can’t really get into the intelligence,” Wallace said, citing confidentiality. He stressed, however, that GRU would not go “rogue” and likely received its orders from senior members of the Russian state.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added, “takes pride in surrounding himself with former intelligence officers.” Wallace remarked that Putin’s government also directs funds to military intelligence, saying the Russian leader “bears responsibility” for the attack.

The U.K. will also take diplomatic measures against Russia, by making its case for sanctions to the United Nations and pursuing European chemical sanctions mechanisms, according to Wallace.

Asked about the possibility of enforcing financial sanctions on Russian oligarchs and government officials, as the United States has done, Wallace said the U.K. lacks such unilateral power “as long as we’re a member of the European Union.”

“At the very least, we need to maintain the pressure,” he said.

Read this next: ‘It’s open season on the president’: Anonymous op-ed unleashes fresh West Wing meltdown</s>Vladimir Putin bears "ultimate responsibility" for the Salisbury Novichok attack, the security minister has said.

Ben Wallace said the Russian President's government "controls, funds and directs" the GRU intelligence service, which the UK government has blamed for the nerve agent poisoning.

In comments that go further than Prime Minister Theresa May, who declined to name Putin in the Commons on Wednesday, he said: "Ultimately, of course he's responsible - he's the leader of the state."

British and Russian officials will come face-to-face on Thursday as the UN Security Council discusses the Salisbury attack hours after Mrs May said that Moscow agents were behind the deadly poisoning.</s>The eyebrow-raising claim was made on Russian state TV as the Kremlin goes into overdrive to boost Russian President Vladimir Putin’s falling popularity at home.</s>Britain’s security minister says Russian President Vladimir Putin bears ultimate responsibility for the Novichok nerve agent attack carried out in England.

Ben Wallace told the BBC on Thursday that Putin and his government “controls, funds and directs the military intelligence” unit known as the GRU that Britain believes used Novichok to try to kill ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

READ MORE: Britain charges 2 Russians over nerve agent poisoning on ex-spy

Britain plans to press its case against Russia in the U.N. Security Council Thursday. Many Western countries have already imposed sanctions on Russia because of the attack.

Walls said the GRU is directly linked to Russia’s Defence Ministry, the Kremlin and Putin’s office.

Britain on Wednesday announced charges against two suspected Russian agents in the March 4 attack on the Skripals in the city of Salisbury.</s>The Bears open the season Sunday with a prime-time test against the Packers at Lambeau Field.

As kickoff closes in, here are three keys to keep tabs on as the Bears attempt to win their opener for the first time since 2013. Circle back after the game for a review.

Pregame analysis: Simple, right? Just find a way to rattle a two-time MVP who has a career rating of 107.2 against the Bears in regular-season games. Rodgers has been particularly special at Lambeau Field in the rivalry, posting a record of 8-1 there in games against the Bears that he has both started and finished. In those games, he has completed 66.6 percent of his passes and has a 24-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio. But what about that one loss, that 17-13 Bears victory on Thanksgiving three years ago? Several key components sparked that upset. A timely turnover (Tracy Porter picked Rodgers off late in the fourth quarter with the Bears protecting a four-point lead). The elimination of big plays (Rodgers attempted 43 passes that night with only four resulting in a gain of 15 yards or longer). An ability to get off the field on third down (The Packers were 3-for-11). The Bears may have to check all three boxes to win.

Pregame analysis: New coach Matt Nagy has been praised for his offensive vision and ability to create favorable matchups for his playmakers. Now it’s time to see Nagy’s play-calling talents in action. The Packers may prove particularly vulnerable over the middle. Inside linebacker Blake Martinez is solid but not special. Fellow starter Oren Burks is battling a shoulder issue and may be limited if he plays at all. Martinez, Burks and Antonio Morrison could have a difficult time if forced to chase tight end Trey Burton and running back Tarik Cohen in coverage frequently. The Packers will also need to use rookie defensive backs Josh Jackson and Jaire Alexander in certain packages and it’ll be worth testing the newcomers when the opportunity arises. Both players have an aggressive mentality but could be susceptible to big plays if they take chances they can’t get away with on the NFL level.

Pregame analysis: Edge rusher Leonard Floyd will play with a club on his fractured right hand. Rookie Roquan Smith hasn’t been in game action since last winter’s college football national championship game. Khalil Mack has had barely a week to get comfortable in the Bears defense. It may be a month or longer before the Bears’ three most talented defensive players are operating at full strength and in sync. Still, that doesn’t mean Floyd, Smith and Mack can’t win a game for the Bears on Sunday night. All three players were drafted in the top 10. All three have game-wrecking ability. Realistically, the Bears will need a handful of defensive splash plays to legitimize their upset bid. And Floyd, Smith and Mack must push to make them.

Sports Football Chicago Bears As Khalil Mack acclimates to the Bears, his impact on the defense will be ________? Bears writers fill in the blanks »

A path to 10 wins? A detour to 10 losses? Which do you see for the 2018 Bears? »

Bears Q&A: How does acquiring Khalil Mack shift expectations? What evidence is there of Mitch Trubisky's progress? »</s>LONDON — Britain’s security minister says Russian President Vladimir Putin bears ultimate responsibility for the Novichok nerve agent attack carried out in England.

Ben Wallace told the BBC on Thursday that Putin and his government “controls, funds and directs the military intelligence” unit known as the GRU that Britain believes used Novichok to try to kill ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Britain plans to press its case against Russia in the U.N. Security Council Thursday. Many Western countries have already imposed sanctions on Russia because of the attack.

Walls said the GRU is directly linked to Russia’s Defense Ministry, the Kremlin and Putin’s office.

Britain on Wednesday announced charges against two suspected Russian agents in the March 4 attack on the Skripals in the city of Salisbury.

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Ben Wallace, British Security Minister, says in an interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin bears the responsibility for multiple Novichok poisonings in the U.K., in which British citizens were harmed and killed.