Spy games?
WORLD: A Russian agent convicted of spying for Britain was fighting for his life last night amid suspicions he was poisoned in a shopping centre in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
"If there was a belief, rightly or wrongly, that Skripal was working for the security services or did something else to make him a person of interest, it would put him back in the crosshairs." Mark Galeotti, spy watcher
BRITAIN: A Russian agent convicted of spying for Britain was fighting for his life last night amid suspicions he was poisoned in a shopping centre in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Sergei Skripal, 66, is in intensive care after being exposed to a mysterious substance as he sat on a bench in the cathedral city in western England.
A 33-year-old woman who was with him is also in a critical condition. Both had collapsed and were unconscious when they were discovered.
The incident bears similarities to the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian agent who was poisoned by radioactive polonium in a London hotel.
Skripal, 66, a retired armed colonel who reportedly worked for Russia’s FSB intelligence service, was jailed in Moscow for spying for Britain but arrived in the United Kingdom in 2010 as part of a prisoner exchange. Anna Chapman, a Russian-born secret agent who had acquired British citizenship and who was detained by United States authorities, was sent back to Russia along with nine other agents.
Litvinenko’s widow Marina said: ‘‘It looks similar to what happened to my husband, but we need more information. We need to know the substance. Was it radioactive?’’
Skripal and his female companion were discovered on Monday. A witness, Freya Church, said she walked past the pair, who appeared to have ‘‘taken something quite strong’’.
‘‘On the right-hand side on the bench there was a couple, an older guy and a younger girl, she was sort of lent in on him. It looked like she had passed out,’’ Church said.
‘‘He was doing some strange hand movements, looking up to the sky.’’
The couple were taken to Salisbury District Hospital, where authorities declared a major incident and its A&E unit had to be closed.
Police wearing protective suits were examining the area around the bench where the couple had collapsed. One well-placed source said a number of police officers who had initially attended the scene had also been treated for possible contamination.
One report suggested a ‘‘specialist chemical response unit’’ had removed an ‘‘unknown substance’’ which had been wrapped in several protective layers.
The prospect of a statesponsored assassination attempt against Skripal was immediately raised by opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion and highprofile critic of the Russian leader, tweeted: ‘‘After the UK’S pathetic response to Litvinenko’s assassination with polonium in London, why wouldn’t Putin do it again?’’
Skripal is thought to have been living quietly in Salisbury for seven years.
He was jailed for 13 years in 2006 after being found guilty of ‘‘high treason in the form of espionage’’ by a Moscow military court. Russia alleged that Skripal had been paid £72,000 by MI6 in exchange for passing the British intelligence agency the identities of Russian secret agents operating in Europe. He was branded a traitor and a disgrace to his country.
Dr Igor Sutyagin, a Russian nuclear expert who had been convicted of spying in 2004, was also sent to the UK with Skripal as part of the spy swap. Now with the Royal United Services Institute in London, he said he only knew Skripal for the duration of their flight from Moscow.
Asked about Russia’s possible involvement, he said: ‘‘If everything points to these people, then that’s a problem for them.’’
Dr Andrew Foxall, director of the Russia and Eurasia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society, said: ‘‘While it is too soon to attribute responsibility, it would be foolhardy if the authorities were not to explore the Russia connection.’’
Craig Holden, temporary assistant chief constable of Wiltshire Police, said: ‘‘The two people – a man in his 60s, and a woman in her 30s – were found unconscious on a bench in The Maltings in Salisbury ... The pair, who we believe are known to each other, did not have any visible injuries and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital.
‘‘They are currently being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance. Both are in a critical condition in intensive care.’’
The incident will raise concerns that Russian assassins have struck again, 11 years after Litvinenko was murdered in 2006.
Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russia’s secret services, said: ‘‘The Russians have more animus towards ‘traitors’ than dissidents.’’
However, he added that it would be unusual to target an exspy who had been jailed, debriefed and exchanged.
‘‘One thing that made Alexander Litvinenko a target was that he was still working with the security services.
‘‘If there was a belief, rightly or wrongly, that Skripal was working for the security services or did something else to make him a person of interest, it would put him back in the crosshairs,’’ Galeotti said.
Early reports suggested that Skripal and the unnamed woman may have been exposed to the synthetic drug Fentanyl, which is up to 10,000 times more powerful than heroin. – Telegraph Group