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LONDON — Russia denied any involvement Thursday in the poisoning of a couple in Britain with a Soviet-developed nerve agent, four months after a Russian ex-spy and his daughter were found poisoned with the same toxin in a nearby city.
Emergency services were called to the town of Amesbury in Wiltshire, southern England, on Saturday after the couple, Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, were found unconscious in a property. They were taken to Salisbury District Hospital where they remain in critical condition.
Police said the pair were exposed to nerve agent Novichok. The couple were found by emergency services about 10 miles from Salisbury, where Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the same nerve agent on March 4. Britain blames Russia for the Skripals’ poisoning. Russia denies any involvement.
More: Nerve agent leaves couple in critical condition near site of UK spy attack
Related: Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal discharged from hospital after poisoning
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia had nothing to do with either incident.
“Russia has categorically denied and continues to categorically deny the possibility of any kind of involvement to what was happening there,” Peskov told reporters.
He said “the British side has not presented any evidence of Russia’s involvement in this, besides unfounded accusations.”
Home Secretary Sajid Javid called for Russia to explain "exactly what has gone on."
“The use of chemical weapons anywhere is barbaric and inhumane,” he told lawmakers following an emergency meeting Thursday.
“The decision taken by the Russian government to deploy these in Salisbury on 4 March was reckless and callous. There is no plausible alternative explanation to the events in March other than that the Russian state was responsible," he said.
Authorities believe Rowley and Sturgess, British nationals with no known links to Russia, were not deliberately targeted.
“The working assumption would be that these are victims of either the consequence of the previous attack, or something else, but not that they were directly targeted,” Security Minister Ben Wallace told the BBC.
“I think what we said at the time was that this was a brazen and reckless attack in the heart of a very peaceful part of the United Kingdom, and that is part of the anger I feel about the Russian state … that they chose to use clearly a very, very toxic, highly dangerous weapon.”
British media said the couple could have somehow come into contact with Novichok residue from the attack on the Skripals, who have been taken to an undisclosed location after they were discharged from Salisbury District Hospital in April and May.
Sergei Skripal was jailed in Russia in 2006 for passing state secrets to Britain. He was released as part of a spy swap in 2010 and moved to Salisbury.
More: Who is Sergei Skripal? Russian spy found unconscious in English park sparks intrigue
Public health officials said the risk to the public is low, but advised people who had visited five locations in Amesbury and Salisbury between Friday night and Saturday evening including a park, a drugstore and a church to wash the clothing they were wearing and wipe personal items such as phones with cleansing or baby wipes.
Sam Hobson, a friend of Sturgess, said she was taken away on a stretcher after falling ill Saturday, the BBC reported. Hobson said she appeared to have a fit and was "foaming at the mouth" and that Rowley started "rocking against the wall” soon afterward, according to the BBC.
"His eyes were wide open, glazed and pinpricked, and he was sweating, dribbling and making weird noises,” Hobson added.
Russia is currently hosting the 2018 World Cup. If Russia and England win their next matches, the two teams could face each other in next week’s semi-finals.
Russia’s embassy in the Netherlands tweeted Thursday: "How dumb they think (Russia) is to use “again” so-called “Novichok” in the middle of the FIFA World Cup...The show must go on?"
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