Spy swap Russian ‘poisoned in Britain’
A RUSSIAN colonel who spied for the UK’s MI6 was critically ill in a British hospital last night amid fears of a poison plot.
Sergei Skripal, 66, was rushed to casualty after collapsing in a shopping centre in Salisbury, Witshire.
He was found with a 33-year-old woman, who is also fighting for her life. She is thought to be a family member.
Health chiefs said the pair had been exposed to an ‘unknown substance’. They shut down Salisbury hospital’s A&E unit to protect other patients and sealed off part of the city centre. It is thought that Mr Skripal, who unmasked dozens of Russian agents, may have been the target of a revenge ‘hit’ by former colleagues.
Police said it had not been declared a terrorist incident. However, friends of Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London in 2006 with polonium210, said it had the hallmarks of a Kremlin-backed attack.
Mr Skripal had recently told police he feared for his life. A decade ago he was accused of passing secrets to MI6 officers through a James Bond-style fake rock hidden in a Moscow park.
He was jailed in Russia but released and given refuge in Britain in the largest spy swap since the Cold War. Among the agents deported from the US as part of the deal was socialite Anna Chapman, who was married to a British citizen and lived in London for several years.
As police and the security services began retracing Mr Skripal’s movements:
British police and medical staff were ordered to undergo urgent ‘decontamination’ amid concerns that an ‘unknown substance’ could be passed on;
Mr Skripal’s close friend Alexander Goldfarb said he was ‘not surprised’ by the incident, saying the Kremlin had the ‘opportunity, motive and a prior history’;
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson warned that Russian president Vladimir Putin had ‘hostile intent’ toward Britain;
Whitehall officials said there was no evidence a radioactive substance had been used.
Mr Skripal and his unidentified relative were found barely conscious in The Maltings shopping centre shortly after 4pm on Sunday. Emergency services initially believed the pair may have taken fentanyl, a super strength painkiller causing thousands of deaths among drug addicts worldwide.
Mr Skripal – dubbed the spy with a Louis Vuitton bag – was convicted of passing state secrets to Britain in 2006. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison but was among four agents given pardons and one of two sent to Britain.
He is believed to have been paid over £78,000 (€87,500) by the British authorities for his work.
Mr Litvinenko, an ex-KGB spy, was killed almost 12 years ago in an attack likely to have been personally sanctioned by Mr Putin. Mr Litvinenko was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and worked as an adviser for MI6 after seeking asylum in Britain in 2000.
His murder plunged relations between Britain and Russia into the deep freeze. Mr Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, told the Daily Telegraph last night: ‘It looks similar to what happened to my husband but we need more information.’
A second inquiry continues into the mysterious death of businessman-turned-whistleblower Alexander Perepilichny who died in Surrey in 2012. Last night, detectives were inside Mr Skripal’s £350,000 (€390,000) semi-detached home – bought with cash – on the edge of Salisbury.
‘He lived there with his Russian son and his son’s partner,’ said neighbour Blake Stephens. ‘He used to live with his wife but unfortunately she died in a car accident a while ago.’
Asked for a comment, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in London said: ‘Neither relatives nor legal representatives of the said person, nor the British authorities have addressed the embassy in this regard.’
May be target of a revenge hit