Football ‘hides Russia threat’
THE success of the England football team at the World Cup should not mask the fact that Russia is engaged in “murder and espionage”, Ben Wallace, the security minister, says today.
As England prepare to take on Sweden in the quarter-finals, Mr Wallace warns football fans not to forget the threat Moscow poses to the UK.
His comments come after television presenters and pundits heaped praise on Russia for the way it has organised the tournament. However, Mr Wallace tells The Daily Telegraph: “It is a football tournament. I don’t equate a sporting tournament with foreign policy and values of a country. We are still dealing with an assault of Western companies and people with cyber crime and cyber espionage every single day.”
Mr Wallace spoke ahead of next week’s Nato summit in Brussels and praised the Government’s commitment to defence. “We have some of the best armed forces in the world,” he says.
PEOPLE in Salisbury who may have come into contact with the couple poisoned by Novichok are being swabbed to ensure they are not carrying traces of the deadly nerve agent as police admitted they could not rule out more people being affected.
Those who met Dawn Sturgess or Charlie Rowley between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon last week are being offered contamination tests.
Last night, the police said the couple travelled by bus from Ms Sturgess’ flat in Salisbury to Amesbury, raising concern for other passengers.
A Public Health England spokesman said: “We are following up with anyone we think may have been in direct contact with the affected individuals as part of our contact tracing process. The risk to the wider public remains low.”
But Kier Pritchard, Wiltshire’s chief constable, said he could not rule out that others might be affected. He said: “It’s deeply concerning. It’s worrying that we have two members of our community who are gravely ill and, of course, we need to respond to that. I hope we are not back in this position in four months.”
Emergency workers in chemical protection suits began forensic examinations of the homes of Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley to find the source of the contamination. It is thought the couple could have been poisoned when they handled a syringe or container used in the attempt on the lives of Sergei Skripal, the former Russian double agent, and Yulia, his daughter, in March.
Experts think equipment used by the would-be assassins to transport the nerve agent for the initial attack was simply discarded in a public place when they made their getaway.