Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that two men Britain suspects of poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal with military-grade nerve agent had been identified as "civilians" and were not criminals.
Putin urged the men to address the media saying there was "nothing criminal" about them, as he spoke at an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
"We know who they are, we have found them," Putin said at the forum attended by Japan's Shinzo Abe and China's Xi Jinping.
British authorities last week accused Russian citizens Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov of attempting to assassinate former Russian Sergei Skripal and his wife in Salisbury in April.
The incident has led to a sharp crisis in Russian-British relations with mutual accusations.
Washington joined forces with the British and imposed a trade and economic sanctions against Russia.
Russia denied any involvement in the assassination attempt and offered to cooperate with the British side in conducting a joint investigation, but the British authorities refused to cooperate with Russia and asked the investigation assistant to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.