Vladimir Putin is 'likely' to have approved of the Novichok attack in Salisbury, it has been revealed.
The Russian president's involvement in the deadly poisoning is understood to have been assessed by British intelligence agencies as well as Scotland Yard.
A pair of Russian assassins travelled to Salisbury in March 2018 in an attempt to kill former spy turned double agent Sergei Skripal with military-grade nerve gas.
While Skripal and his daughter Yulia survived the assassination, Dawn Sturgess died after coming into contact with a perfume bottle used to carry the Novichok.
The UK is currently working to have the two GRU agents who entered the UK extradited and have issued a European arrest warrant (EAW).
Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Neil Basu said that detectives were still investigating the attack and how the Russian government's involvement.
He told the Guardian: 'You'd have to prove he [Putin] was directly involved. We're police officers, so we have to go for evidence.
'In order to get an EAW, you have to have a case capable of being charged in this country. We haven't got a case capable of being charged.
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'There has been a huge amount of speculation about who is responsible, who gave the orders, all based on people's expert knowledge of Russia.'
The British government has previously accused Russia of ordering the attack, and ministers have said it was 'highly likely' to have been ordered by Putin himself.
Authorities subsequently identified the perpetrators as two Russian GRU agents who entered the country using passports bearing the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, which they said were almost certainly pseudonyms.
Open-source intelligence website Bellingcat later identified the two men as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga and Dr. Alexander Mishkin.
Russia has denied having anything to do with the poisoning, and has rebuked the British government while trying to discredit evidence around the chemical used.
The country's UK embassy has also repeatedly requested consular access to the Skripals, and accuses Britain of violating international norms by failing to allow it.
Skripal was a former Russian spy turned double-agent for the UK security services who settled in the UK in 2010 following the Illegals Program spy swap.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
