THE SMIRKING GUN
Putin laughs off UK’s spy poison claims
VLADIMIR Putin refused to deny Russia’s involvement in the spy poison attack – as police probed the death of another of his enemies in Britain.
Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was found dead with strangulation marks on his neck at his London home on Monday.
It came eight days after Sergei Skripal, 66, and daughter Yulia, 33, collapsed when they were contaminated with a deadly nerve agent in Salisbury, Wilts.
The pair were last night continuing to fight for their lives in hospital.
Police said Mr Glushkov’s death was “unexplained” and they were awaiting the results of a post mortem. He fled to the UK in 2006 after being given a twoyear suspended jail sentence for fraud.
The former airline executive was a close pal of oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was found dead in 2013. His is one of 14 Russian deaths being re-examined in the wake of the nerve agent attack.
Mr Glushkov’s body was found by his daughter at his home in New Malden, south-west London. A police spokesman said there was “no evidence” at this stage to link it to the Salisbury attack. But they added that counter-terrorism officers were leading the investigation “as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had”.
Yesterday a smiling Mr Putin laughed off claims Russia was behind the Salisbury attack. He told the BBC: “Get to the bottom of things there first, then we’ll discuss this.”
Ex-Russian agent Anna Chapman called Skripal a “traitor” and claimed Russia had been found “guilty by default”. But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the UK was encouraged by the “strength of support” from allies for action against Russia. The Star Says: