A GOVERNMENT official giving evidence at the Dawn Sturgess Public Inquiry described Russian channel RT as 'essentially the propaganda organ of the Russian State'.
On November 28, director general for defence and intelligence Jonathan Allen gave evidence to the inquiry in London about Russia's responsibility behind the chemical weapon attack that saw Dawn Sturgess lose her life.
Suspects behind the attempted murder, Petrov and Boshirov, have been written to three times for a response, but they never responded.
They were interviewed by RT - Russian TV channel on September 13, 2018. That date of broadcast was eight days after it was announced in the UK that CPS would bring charges against the two men.
You can watch the interview here.
READ MORE: Why did the Government blame Russia for Novichok poisonings?
"I would take two particular things [from the interview]," Mr Allen said.
"The first is it reinforces to me the culpability of those involved and the Russian State because of the fact that they tell obvious falsehoods throughout it, starting with their names and then around the purpose of their visit to Salisbury.
"They make claims that are disproved by CCTV and other evidence and of course the fact that they clearly handled the Novichok because it was found in their hotel room."
Petrov and Boshirov were asked in the interview if they went near the Skripals' house on Christie Miller Road, but denied they knew where it was. CCTV footage shows them walk several times up Devizes Road and near the house the day before the Skripals were poisoned and the day of it.
Mr Allen went on to say that RT is "essentially the propaganda organ of the Russian State" and Putin had said earlier that day that these two "might appear".
READ MORE: Putin made 'extremely offensive' remarks after poisonings
"It suggests to me that President Putin had therefore been consulted in the decision to put them in front of the cameras and therefore the Russian State equally is demonstrating its culpability through this false account."
Interviewer Maragrita Simonyan, editor in chief at RT, asked Petrov and Boshirov: "what did you do in the UK?"
Petrov and Boshirov answered: ‘We went to the station to check the schedule to see where we could go.
"The original plan was to go for a day", they said: ‘It's a regular city, a regular tourist city."
They claimed that they walked around for 30 minutes and went back to London because "the whole city was covered in slush" due to snow.
They said that they returned the next day because '"the snow melted in London".
"We really wanted to see Old Sarum and the Cathedral so we decided to give it another try", they said, saying "the Cathedral is very beautiful".
CCTV footage and other evidence gathered by investigators shows that this was not the motive behind their visit.
The inquiry will hear closing statements on Monday, December 2.
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