Around 30 per cent of Russians believe the British secret service was behind the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury, a poll in the country has found.
Only three percent of Russians believe that Russian agents were behind the poisoning, according to the independent poll by Levada which was released today.
Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury on March 4.
They survived however another woman, Dawn Sturgess, was killed when coming into contact with the nerve agent months later.
In September, Theresa May said that it was “almost certain” that the attack was authorised by someone senior inside Russia’s military intelligence agency.
The independent poll found that only three percent of Russians thought their country’s civil service was behind the attacks.
Around 1,600 people were questioned with 28 percent believing it was the work of the British secret service.
Around 56 percent thought “it could be anyone.”
The poll also found that 15 percent of those asked were unaware of the Skripal incident.
In September, the government directly blamed Vladimir Putin for the poisoning.
Security minister Ben Wallace said that Mr Putin bore ultimate responsibility for the action of his intelligence agents.
He told the BBC: “The GRU is, without doubt, not rogue, it is led, linked to both the senior members of the Russian general staff and the defence minister, and through that, into the Kremlin and the president’s office.”
Images and alleged aliases of the two suspects were later released by the government.
Investigative website Bellingcat later revealed the men to be Alexander Mishkin who reportedly worked for Russia’s GRU military intelligence. He was believed to have been given the recognition for his work in Ukraine or Crimea.
While the second suspect was revealed by the site as Anatoily Chepiga, a colonel in Russian military intelligence at the GRU.
The Home Office has not confirmed the names reported.
UK authorities have charged the pair with the attempted murder of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
A European arrest warrant has been issued for the pair, who police believe were using aliases when they travelled to Britain.
The two suspects appeared on Russian channel RT earlier this month claiming they visited Salisbury as tourists and had nothing to do with the poisoning, leading Britain to accuse the country of "lies and blatant fabrications".
The pair told RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan they worked in the fitness industry.
