The Kremlin has accused British authorities of doctoring evidence as it unsurprisingly contested Russian involvement in the Salisbury attempted assassination plot.

On the day two Russian spies became Britain's most wanted men, in Moscow, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov meant nothing to her.

They are the two men suspected of poisoning Sergei and Yulia Skripal with the same Novichok which killed Dawn Sturgess when she sprayed the lethal nerve agent on her wrists thinking it was perfume.

Scotland Yard forensically combed through 11,000 hours of CCTV footage and on Wednesday released images of Petrov and Boshirov arriving at Gatwick, on a suspected reconnaissance mission in Salisbury and in the Wiltshire city the day the Skripals were attacked before heading back to Moscow via Heathrow.

But The Kremlin claimed the timestamp had been overlaid on the CCTV photographs of them arriving through gates at Gatwick on March 2 as they showed the same time - 16:22:43.

Had the two men been walking through the same gate, there could have been cause for concern and Zakharova's scoffing Wednesday night that the agents had learnt to walk simultaneously may have held water.

But a Met Police spokesman told The Telegraph: "The images of the two suspects at Gatwick are taken from two different cameras covering separate lanes at the point passengers exit from international arrivals."

Zakharova was The Kremlin's mouthpiece as the world reacted to the suspects being named and pictured. Moscow's first response was to post a video on the foreign ministry's official Instagram account of her dancing split with a clip of Theresa May dancing in South Africa, poking fun at the Prime Minister.

She later called for fingerprints of Petrov and Boshirov to be handed over to Russia, claiming British officials was not being forthcoming with answers.

Speaking after Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons on Wednesday, Theresa May said: 'We repeatedly asked Russia to account for what happened in Salisbury in March, and they have replied with obfuscation and lies.

'This has included trying to pass the blame for this attack onto terrorists, onto our international partners, and even onto the future mother-in-law of Yulia Skripal.

'They even claimed that I, myself, invented Novichok.

'Their attempts to hide the truth by pushing out a deluge of disinformation simply reinforces their culpability.

'As we made clear in March, only Russia had the technical means, operational experience and motive to carry out the attack.'

The false claims that the CCTV images were faked are the latest in a long line of outlandish conspiracy theories thrown up by Russia in reaction to hard evidence put forward by Britain in relation to the Novichok attack, something The Kremlin has denied having any involvement in.

In the initial stages of the investigation Russians blamed Britain for the poisoning saying it was to deflect attention from Brexit negotiations.

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The speaker of Russia's parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, told Russia's state-run TASS news agency: "The British Prime Minister Theresa May is very clumsy in trying to cast the suspicions away from the British side. All the responsibility for the situation that involves our nationals who have left our country is on Britain.

Sergei Markov, director of the Moscow-based Institute of Political Studies, then accused the Prime Minister of using the incident move the public's attention away from the problems her Government was facing at the time, including Brexit talks.

"The British intelligence service probably organised the killing of Mr Skripal, sacrificing the guy who they don't need any more," Markov said.

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Among the other wild speculation coming from Russia's state-owned media outlets was that the poisoning was linked to the Trump dossier, with Russia 1 broadcasting: "Skripal’s poisoning is somehow linked to the Trump dossier, since his British handler was a major contributor to Steele’s report and British intelligence agencies might have been pumping Skripal for information."

Russia's UN ambassador got creative with his analysis of who might have tried to kill the Skripals, saying it could have been carried out by anyone who has watched an episode of Midsomer Murders - the murder mystery series set in a quaint English village.

Vasily Nebenzya said in April: “Everyone who knows crime novels, for example, the Midsomer Murders – a well-known British series – they all know hundreds of very clever ways of killing someone.

"It’s some sort of theatre of the absurd. Couldn’t you come up with a better fake story? We have told our British colleagues that ’you’re playing with fire and you’ll be sorry.’"

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The poisoning was also seen by Moscow as a smokescreen by Britain for Russia's self-acclaimed successes in Syria, all the while Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were recovering in hospital.

And the mere fact they hadn't been killed was enough for some media outlets in Russia to determine it couldn't have possibly been the work of their countrymen.

When Yulia was released from hospital, the theories went into overdrive once more.

She was transferred to a secret, secure location after being released from hospital, leading to accusations from the Russian embassy she had been abducted.

The Russian embassy in London congratulated Ms Skripal on her recovery, but said it needed “urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will”.

It went on to say the “secret resettlement of Mr and Ms Skripal, barred from any contact with their family will be seen as an abduction or at least as their forced isolation”.

But she had been offered the assistance of the Russian embassy. She turned them down.

The Russian Embassy in London's Twitter feed has routinely spewed out unsubstantiated theories ranging from the Skripals being held in isolation by British authorities to staff members at Porton Down being complicit with framing Russians in the investigation.

With the probe continuing, Charlie Rowley unknowingly handed a bottle of Novichok to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess on June 30. She died on July 8.

It invited The Kremlin-run news agencies to offer up their versions of how and why Ms Sturgess was killed by the lethal nerve agent.

Among them was that it was an attempt by "someone" to distract from the Trump-Putin which was to be held a month later.

Another was that Ms Sturgess' poisoning was a British attempt to ruin the World Cup in Russia which kicked off a week after the 44-year-old died.

Sergei Zheleznyak, a Russian MP on the Duma's foreign affairs committee, claimed she was "chosen to create this strange and unpleasant incident", talking to News 24 in his home country.

Almost every new development in the poisoning case has been met with a flat denial from Russia, and is usually accompanied by a spurious claim.

One of the main culprits is the Russian Embassy in London's Twitter account and below is a compilation of their strangest responses to breaking news.

Russian Embassy's most bizarre tweets

Salisbury nerve agent attack: How might UK respond?

Theresa May said Britain will deploy the "full range of tools" from across the National Security apparatus to counter the threat posed by the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service.

While some measures that could form part of the response are likely to be played out on the world stage, others will take place under the radar.

Cyber

Speculation about the possibility of a retaliatory cyber strike emerged in the wake of the Salisbury poisoning in March, and again after police identified two Russian nationals as suspects.

The Times reported that such operations will aim to disrupt the GRU by scrambling communications and obstructing access to finance.

Britain's capacity in the area of "offensive cyber" was summarised in December by the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee, which has access to high-level security figures and highly classified material.

Offensive cyber covers a range of measures including possible retaliation and capabilities to attack wider systems or infrastructure, according to the committee's annual report.

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Counter-espionage

Britain's security chiefs were flagging up the threat from Russia prior to the Salisbury attack. In a speech in October last year, MI5 director general Andrew Parker referenced the agency's work "against espionage and other clandestine activity by Russia and other foreign states who seek to do Britain harm".

Methods adopted could include alerting someone to a foreign intelligence service's interest in recruiting them or providing advice to companies with sought-after information.

Security agencies could also seek the expulsion of foreign intelligence officers if their activity is deemed to be especially intrusive or threatens real damage to UK interests.

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New border powers

The disclosure that the two Salisbury suspects flew in from Moscow two days before the poisoning bolsters the Government's case for new measures to stop spies and agents at the border.

Under plans unveiled earlier this year, police and immigration authorities will be handed anti-terror style powers to intercept individuals to determine whether they are or have been engaged in "hostile activity".

International pressure

Britain will continue efforts to rally the international community and close partners to strengthen defences against and clamp down on malign Russian activity.

In the aftermath of Salisbury, Britain, Nato and 28 other countries expelled more than 150 Russian intelligence officers in the largest collective expulsion ever.

Diplomacy

While she made clear the UK's outrage over the attack, Mrs May did also commit to continuing to engage Russia "on topics of international peace and security".

She said: "We continue to hold out hope that we will one day once again enjoy a strong partnership with the Government of this great nation."