The government has remained silent on whether the new foreign secretary challenged her Russian counterpart over the Salisbury attack during a meeting held after a third suspect was charged.
Liz Truss met the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday - a day after police announced the prosecution of GRU agent Denis Sergeev.
A summary of their discussion provided by the government made no mention of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, which Theresa May said was approved “at a senior level of the Russian state” in 2018.
The readout said: “The foreign secretary met Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov ahead of the meeting of P5 foreign ministers convened by the UK.
“They discussed the need for Iran to return to nuclear talks. They also discussed stability and security in Afghanistan including the need for the Taliban to form an inclusive government. They looked forward to the COP26 conference in Glasgow in November.”
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Boris Johnson had urged Russia publicly to “hand over” the three suspects identified by British police, so they can go on trial in the UK.
The meeting came a week after Ms Truss replaced Dominic Raab as foreign secretary in a cabinet reshuffle.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released its own summary of the meeting, which also made no mention of the Salisbury attack.
It said the ministers discussed “the current state of bilateral relations”, and suggested that Mr Lavrov accused the British government of refusing to treat Russia with “equality and regard for each other’s interests”.
Russia has denied responsibility for the Salisbury attack and refuses to extradite its nationals, meaning the likelihood of the three suspects facing a British court is slim.
On Tuesday, MPs asked the home secretary what stance the foreign secretary would take with her Russian counterpart “so that these suspects are forced to face justice”.
Priti Patel told parliament that Ms Truss and the Foreign Office were “undertaking a range of diplomatic engagements in UN forums right now”.
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Russian spy Denis Sergeev accused of attempted murder over Salisbury novichok attack
“The foreign secretary is currently in New York at the UN General Assembly, and we are in no doubt that we are pressing every single lever,” she added. “The FCDO and the foreign secretary will rightly lead on the key discussions.”
Ms Patel pledged that the government would “take every possible step” to detain the suspects and added: “Our government will be relentless in our pursuit of justice for the victims of these attacks.”
Dean Haydon, the Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, previously said that police were relying on the Foreign Office and diplomatic channels for any hope of moving the case forward.
“There is no extradition treaty with Russia,” he told a press conference. “We had very little cooperation from Russia or the Russian state. The FCDO will be talking on diplomatic channels to Russia but from the police investigation side our due process is to seek arrest warrants and circulate them through Interpol.
“If there is an opportunity to arrest those individuals and put them in front of a UK court to seek justice for those individuals [poisoned] or the people of Salisbury, we will do that.”
Interpol red notices have been circulated internationally for the past three years for the two suspects previously charged over the attack, GRU agents Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga, but no arrests have been made.
The new suspect, Denis Sergeev is also thought to remain in Russia.
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Show all 19
1/19Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Salisbury train station The two suspects charged in relation to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal at Salisbury train station at 16:11hrs on 03 March 2018
Metropolitan Police
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Suspects Suspects Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, Russian nationals, approximately 40 years old, who travelled on a Russian passport. It is likely that they were travelling under aliases and that these are not their real names
Metropolitan Police
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Evidence Bottle and applicator recovered by police from Charlie Rowley’s address in Muggleton Road
Metropolitan Police
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Evidence A counterfeit perfume box that was discovered by nerve agent victim Charlie Rowley, who later gave it, and the bottle inside, to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess
Metropolitan Police/AFP/Getty
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Rowley has previously said he felt lucky to be alive after giving a perfume bottle that contained the nerve agent Novichok to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, who later died
Metropolitan Police/AFP/Getty
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Suspeccts The CPS has issued European Arrest Warrants for the extradition of 'Boshirov' and 'Petrov' in connection with the Novichok poisoning attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March
Metropolitan Police/PA
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – ‘Boshirov' at Gatwick airport Movements in detail - At 3pm on Friday, 2 March, the suspects arrived at Gatwick airport, having flown from Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2588
Metropolitan Police
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – ‘Petrov’ at Gatwick airport From the airport it is believed that they travelled by train into London, arriving at Victoria station at approximately 5.40pm
Metropolitan Police
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Salisbury train station, 11:48hrs on 4 March 2018 They then travelled on London public transport to Waterloo station and were in the area between approximately 6pm and 7pm. They travelled to the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road, East London, where they stayed on Friday, 2 March, and Saturday, 3 March. On Saturday, 3 March, they left the hotel and took the underground to Waterloo station, arriving at approximately 11.45am, where they caught a train to Salisbury, arriving at approximately 2.25pm
Metropolitan Police
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack City Stay Hotel in Bow Road Police officers stand outside the City Stay Hotel in Bow where on Sunday, 4 March, 'Boshirov' and 'Petrov' made the same journey from the hotel as they did the previous day, again using the underground from Bow to Waterloo station at approximately 8.05am, before continuing their journey by train to Salisbury
Getty
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Wilton Road, Salisbury, 11:58hrs on 4 March 2018 CCTV shows them in the vicinity of Mr Skripal’s house and we believe that they contaminated the front door with Novichok
Metropolitan Police
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Fisherton Road CCTV image of both suspects on Fisherton Road, Salisbury at 13:05hrs on 4 March, 2018
Metropolitan Police
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Salisbury train station, 13:50hrs on 4 March 2018 They left Salisbury and returned to Waterloo Station, arriving at approximately 4.45pm and boarded the London Underground at approximately 6.30pm to London Heathrow Airport
Metropolitan Police
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Heathrow airport security, 19:28hrs on 4 March 2018 From Heathrow Airport, they returned to Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2585, departing at 10.30pm
Metropolitan Police/PA
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Scene investigations The police investigation was carried out over 6 months. Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found on March 4 in a critical condition on a bench outside the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury
AFP
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Victims Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, right, and his daughter Yulia
Rex
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Victims Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey who rushed to the aid of the Skripals was also taken to hospital in a serious condition after falling ill when attempting to help them
PA
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Victims Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, died after falling ill when partner Charlie Rowley gave her a perfume bottle that contained the nerve agent Novichok
Facebook/AFP/Getty
Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Scene investigations The home of Charlie Rowley in Muggleton Road, Amesbury, where he and Dawn Sturgess were exposed to the deadly nerve agent Novichok
PA
The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised the same charges against him as the two previous suspects, including the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia, the grievous bodily harm of police officer Nick Bailey and the use of novichok as a chemical weapon.
They do not cover the death of Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old-mother killed by novichok, because the investigation into how she came by the discarded chemical weapon in June 2018 is ongoing.
Sergeev, who travelled to the UK under the alias Sergey Fedotov, is believed to have commanded the poisoning operation from London.
He arrived in Britain hours before his alleged accomplices on 2 March 2018, and met them “on more than one occasion” before the attack.
Sergeev flew back to Moscow from Heathrow at 1.45pm on 4 March, under two hours after the nerve agent was applied to Mr Skripal’s front door.
Mr Haydon said the three suspects “operated as a team” to target Mr Skripal and had previously worked with each other “on behalf of the Russian state on operations outside of Russia”.
No new sanctions or diplomatic action against the Kremlin have been announced after the new charges against Sergeev, which were revealed hours after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for the fatal poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.