British investigators reportedly closer to naming people involved in poisoning of ex-spy

British investigators believe that current or former agents of the Russian military intelligence service G.R.U. were likely behind the nerve attack agent that poisoned an ex-spy and his daughter in Salisbury, England, this spring, The New York Times reports.

On Friday, the Department of Justice indicted 12 G.R.U. officers, accusing them of hacking internal documents from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Three current and former U.S. and British officials told the Times that British intelligence is very close to identifying the people they think carried out the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in March, although they have not entirely ruled out another Russian intelligence agency being involved.

Skripal was in the G.R.U. for nearly 15 years, spending some of the time as a spy for M16, Britain's foreign intelligence service. He was arrested in 2004 and pleaded guilty to espionage, but was released in 2010 as part of a spy swap, moving to England. G.R.U. is known for doling out harsh punishment to traitors, but Russia has denied any involvement in the attack.

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