“The customs are checking everything, they would have questions as to why men have women’s perfume in their luggage. We didn’t have it.”
The pair, who the UK suspect of being members of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, complained their lives had been “turned upside down” and RT said they sounded distressed during the interview.
“We’re afraid of going out, we fear for ourselves, our lives and lives of our loved ones,” Boshirov said.
They also confirmed that they had travelled to Europe before.
RT editor Margarita Simonyan said the men contacted her themselves by calling her mobile number. She said the interview was recorded on Wednesday evening.
The Kremlin-backed station aired the interview a day after President Vladimir Putin said Russia had identified the men sought by Britain and urged them to address the media.
“They are civilians, of course,” Putin said, adding there was nothing criminal about them.
The Skripals survived being poisoned but a local man, Charlie Rowley, picked up a fake perfume bottle containing Novichok weeks later, British investigators have said.
Rowley gave it to his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, who later died.