The target was Col. Skripal who has been hunted by the Russians since his 2010 spy swap release.
He had moved several times in the London area to various safe houses. His daughter Yulia had not visited him since he had moved last. Neither she not the Russians knew where Col. Skripal lived.
Petrov and Boshirov knew of Yulia’s proposed trip and flew in the day before to follow Yulia to Col. Skripal’s location, which they did, and then did site surveillance.
Petrov and Boshirov were likely just the drop team. That is, they delivered the poison to a known location and then left the country.
A separate hit team, a man and a woman, are being sought for the direct attack. The hit team then disposed of the poison in a used clothing charity drop box in a nearby “needle park”.
Rowley, was “dumpster diving” and found the poison-filled perfume bottle and gave it to his girlfriend Sturgess as a gift. She applied it to her wrists and died. Contrary to news reports, the agent was not sprayed like perfume.
The Novichok agent has been changed since its first formula, by adding carbon and nitrogen to make it gel and not degrade. This weapons grade refining required many years and a very sophisticated laboratory and testing facility.
This attack was definitely state-sponsored.
“A separate hit team, a man and a woman, are being sought for the direct attack. The hit team then disposed of the poison in a used clothing charity drop box in a nearby “needle park”.
Rowley, was “dumpster diving” and found the poison-filled perfume bottle and gave it to his girlfriend Sturgess as a gift. She applied it to her wrists and died. “
If this is correct (and I assume it is more likely than not) it implies that the attackers disposed of the poison in a way that they knew would harm other people.
And also, they had to assume that the bottle etc would be recovered, analyzed and connected to the Skripal poisoning.
So they actually wanted Russia to be identified as the attacker, as, I guess, a deliberate public provocation. ?
If all that is true, Putin is testing the West.