Former spy found in critical condition

LONDON — British media reported Monday that a former Russian spy was in critical condition after coming into contact with an “unknown substance,” a case that immediately drew parallels to the poisoning of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Authorities did not identify the man, saying only that he and a woman had been found unconscious on a bench in a shopping mall in Salisbury, about 90 miles west of London.

But the Press Association and other British media identified him as Sergei Skripal, 66, who was convicted in Russia on charges of spying for Britain and sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in prison. Skripal was freed in 2010 as part of a U.S.-Russian spy swap.

“They are currently being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance. Both are currently in a critical condition in intensive care,” police said in a statement.

After his 2004 arrest in Moscow, Skripal confessed to having been recruited by British intelligence in 1995 and said he provided information about Russian agents in Europe, receiving over $100,000 in return.

Skripal was pardoned and released from custody in July 2010 as part of a U.S.-Russian-spy swap, which followed the exposure of a ring of Russian sleeper agents in the United States.

The circumstances surrounding Monday’s incident were still murky, but the case resonated in Britain; former Russian agent Alexander Litvenko died after drinking radioactive tea in a London hotel in 2006.

In a 2016 report, a British judge wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved the assassination carried out by the country’s security services.