SPY NERVE GAS HORROR: AGENT IN PUTIN’S No fear of reprisals
The reality is Russia has done this before. Can we take action that’s strong enough to deter them again?
It may well have come into their calculation that Brexit means Britain has isolated itself, so there might be more chance of getting away with it.
Russia is in the grip of Vladimir Putin, and it does operate like a mafia state. We need to go after the senior people in the system.
If you cause them some personal pain by freezing assets and things like that it would certainly help.
Russia is a very centralised, dictatorial system and if it is responsible there’s no way anyone could do anything as big as this without Putin’s approval. Using a nerve agent shows they don’t fear our response. Part of the point is they want people to know they did it. This could happen again, unless their desire to assassinate defectors is outweighed by the consequences of doing so. SPY Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia are critically ill but stable in hospital.
Toxic nerve agents bind to and inhibit a chemical that sends messages to muscles so they do not contract and relax properly.
Atropine has to be given as long as there is nerve agent present. Another antidote, oxime, is also administered.
Certain oxime chemicals may also restore enzyme activity and help a return to normal muscle function.
The nerve agent itself will eventually be metabolised and excreted.
Convulsions are common in nerve agent poisonings and are controlled by the anticonvulsant diazepam.
The victims may need help breathing. Recovery after such a severe poisoning is complicated and prolonged, particularly if there is an effect on the brain.
These are early days and we can only wish Sergei and Yulia well. A Russian spy who defected to Britain today reveals he was also poisoned – and claims he is on a hit-list of EIGHT targets he says Vladimir Putin wants dead.
Boris Karpichkov says he survived an assassination attempt – but lost nearly five stone and all of his body hair.
The ex-KGB major has since learned of seven others – including double agent Sergei Skripal – he believes the Russian President wants to execute.
In a terrifying development Karpichkov says he has been warned to watch for weapons disguised as e-cigarettes but which conceal deadly nerve gas. He tells the Sunday People bluntly: “I’m 59. But I’m not optimistic about seeing 60.” We can reveal the others on the hit-list given to Karpichkov
are: Former MI6 officer running private intelligence firm. Made unsubstantiated claims of Russian spies holding compromising video of US President Donald Trump cavorting with prostitutes.
Russian nuclear weapons specialist accused of spying for Britain, for which he served 11 years for treason. Swapped in 2010 along with Skirpal for Russian sleeper agents in a US spy network including femme fatale Anna Chapman.
Former KGB major who defected to America in 1994. A key witness in the police investigation into the 2006 poisoning of former spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Captain in GRU Soviet military intelligence until his defection to Britain in 1978. Now writes controversial books on Soviet military history.
Yesterday police were continuing to investigate the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, after both were found unconscious in Salisbury, Wilts, on Sunday.
Yulia’s childhood friend, Irina Petrova, told the BBC she recalled the Skripals as the “perfect family”. Yulia and her father are being treated in hospital. Home Secretary Amber Rudd