Skripals could find home in Five-Eyes nation

New Zealand could become the Skripals’ new home although the US is a more likely destination.

Britain is considering offering poisoned Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia new identities and a fresh life in the US in an attempt to protect them from further murder attempts.

The Sunday Times is reporting officials at the MI6 intelligence agency have had discussions with their counterparts in the CIA about resettling the victims poisoned last month in the English city of Salisbury.

“They will be offered new identities,” it quoted an unidentified source as saying.

The paper said its sources believed Britain would want to ensure their safety by resettling them in one of the so-called “Five Eyes”, the intelligence- sharing partnership that also includes Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand.

“The obvious place to resettle them is America because they’re less likely to be killed there and it’s easier to protect them there under a new identity,” it quoted what it called an intelligence source familiar with the negotiations as saying. “There’s a preference for them to be resettled in a Five-Eyes nation because their case would have huge security implications.”

Britain’s Foreign Office had no immediate comment on the report.

Relations between Russia and Britain have plunged to their lowest in decades. Both were found by Britain to be suffering from the effects of poisoning by a nerve agent but they are now recovering in hospital.

— Reuters, AAP