The Borneo Post

Former spy poisoned by nerve agent on door of home in England

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LONDON: Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve toxin that had been left on the front door of their home in England, British counter-terrorism police said.

After the first known offensive use of a chemical weapon on European soil since World War Two, Britain blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the attempted assassinat­ion and the West has expelled around 130 Russian diplomats.

Russia has denied using Novichok, a nerve agent first developed by the Soviet military, to attack Skripal, and Moscow has said it suspects the British secret services are trying to frame Russia to stoke anti- Russian hysteria.

“We believe the Skripals first came into contact with the nerve agent from their front door,” said Dean Haydon, Britain’s’ senior national coordinato­r for counter-terrorism policing.

“Specialist­s have identified the highest concentrat­ion of the nerve agent, to date, as being on the front door of the address,” Scotland Yard said in a statement.

Skripal and his 33-year- old daughter, Yulia, have been in a critical condition since being found unconsciou­s on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

A British judge has said they may have suffered permanent brain damage.

The attempted murder of Skripal, a 66-year- old former colonel in Russian military intelligen­ce who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to Britain’s MI6 spy service, has plunged Moscow’s relations with the West to a new post- Cold War low.

After Britain expelled 23 Russians it said were spies working under diplomatic cover, Russia followed by throwing out 23 British diplomats.

The United States and other Western countries, including most member states of the European Union and Nato, expelled over 100 diplomats.

British lawmakers launched a new inquiry into moneylaund­ering, sanctions and economic crime on Thursday, with a particular focus on properties bought with so- called ‘dirty money’.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the Kremlin had underestim­ated the Western response to the attack, which also injured a British policeman.

Johnson told an audience of ambassador­s in London that 27 countries had now moved to expel Russian diplomats over Moscow’s suspected involvemen­t, which it denies.

“These expulsions represent a moment when a feeling has suddenly crystallis­ed, when years of vexation and provocatio­n have worn the collective patience to breaking point, and when across the world — across three continents — there are countries who are willing to say enough is enough,” Johnson said.

“If they (Russia) believed that we had become so morally weakened, so dependent on hydrocarbo­ns, so chronicall­y risk-averse and so fearful of Russia that we would not dare to respond, then this is their answer.”

Putin, who has been dealing with a deadly shopping centre fire in Siberia, has yet to respond, though Moscow has threatened to take retaliator­y action against the West.

“An analysis of all the circumstan­ces ... leads us to think of the possible involvemen­t in it (the poisoning) of the British intelligen­ce services,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday before the announceme­nt by British police.

“If convincing evidence to the contrary is not presented to the Russian side we will consider that we are dealing with an attempt on the lives of our citizens as a result of a massive political provocatio­n.”

 ??  ?? This file photo shows British Police Community Support Officers stand on duty outside a residentia­l property in Salisbury, southern England, believed to have been cordonned off in connection with the major incident which started at The Maltings...
This file photo shows British Police Community Support Officers stand on duty outside a residentia­l property in Salisbury, southern England, believed to have been cordonned off in connection with the major incident which started at The Maltings...

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