Police cannot ensure safety of Russia’s exiles, sayscompatriot

Friend of Litvinenko warns Glushkov death has caused anxiety as officers talk to dissidents about their security

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POLICE cannot protect Russian exiles round the clock, a friend of Alexander Litvinenko warned after detectives reportedly began speaking to émigrés about their safety following the murder of Nikolai Glushkov and the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal.

Detectives have begun contacting exiles after the businessman was found to have died from “compression to the neck” at his home in New Malden, south-west London, the BBC reported.

Police have said there is no evidence linking the death of the 68-year-old associate of Boris Berezovsky, the oligarch, with the nerve agent poisoning of Col Skripal, the former Russian spy, in Salisbury.

But Alexander Goldfarb, a Russian born microbiologist and friend of Mr Litvinenko, said the killing will have created anxiety among critics of the Russian state.

He said: “The police are doing the right thing to protect them, but they won’t be able to protect them all the time. It’s much easier to kill a person than to protect them.”

Vladimir Ashurkov, an anti-corruption campaigner granted political asylum in the UK, said all critics of the Putin regime had to be on their guard.

He said: “It’s always better for people who are opposed to the Russian regime to be on alert.”

The warnings come as mounting evidence suggested Mr Skripal and his daughter were attacked with a nerve agent around the time they visited the grave of Liudmila, his wife, where Alexander, his son, is commemorated with a plaque, in Salisbury.

Detectives now suspect Mr Skripal and Yulia drove to the cemetery after their car had been poisoned some time on the morning of the attack.

After poring over thousands of hours of CCTV, Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Unit has revealed that Mr Skripal drove Yulia in his burgundy BMW 320D in the direction of the London Road cemetery from his home some time after 9.15am.

The revelations came as officers in chemical protection suits yesterday returned to the cemetery to remove an unmarked police car which may have become contaminated with traces of the nerve agent while police guarded the site. That suggests Mr Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, may have transmitted traces of the agent to the flowers they placed, which in turn cross-contaminated the police vehicle.

It is thought that after visiting the cemetery they returned home, then drove into the centre and parked at Sainsbury’s in The Maltings shopping complex at 1.40pm, before walking to the Mill pub and then the Zizzi restaurant to eat. Shortly after leaving Zizzi at 3.35pm, they succumbed to the effects of the nerve agent and were found in a catatonic state at a bench, yards from the car park.

On Friday police in chemical protection suits swabbed a section of iron railings near the bench for traces on the nerve agent, suggesting Mr Skripal or Yulia may have grasped it in a desperate attempt to steady themselves.

The renewed emphasis on the car and the Skripals’ movements suggest police believe the agent was applied shortly before they first got into the BMW, registration number HD09 WAO.

Army personnel removed the car on Friday night from the Ashley Wood Motors depot in Salisbury, where it was taken after being found following the attack, for closer examination at the Government’s Porton Down chemical weapons research facility.

The attack left Mr Skripal and Yulia close to death and the pair are now in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital. Det Sgt Nick Bailey, a Wiltshire Police officer who was among those first on the scene to help the Skripals, was later taken ill and remains in a serious but stable condition.

Met Asst Commissioner Neil Basu said: “We are learning more about Sergei and Yulia’s movements, but we need to be clearer around their exact movements on the morning of the incident.”

Police have so far taken statements from around 400 witnesses, in “an extremely challenging and complex investigation”.

Around 250 counter-terrorism officers are working on the case, backed by hundreds of officers from other forces, as well as the military. Detectives have recovered 762 exhibits and are trawling through around 4,000 hours of CCTV.

‘The police are doing the right thing, but they won’t be able to protect them all the time. It’s much easier to kill a person than protect them’