A spy story
Sergei Skripal was a little fish. He had a big enemy.
Skripal was a little fish. This is how British officials now describe Skripal, a Russian intelligence officer they recruited as a spy in the mid-1990s. But he had a big enemy... |
Sergei V. Skripal was a little fish.
This is how British officials now describe Skripal, a Russian intelligence officer they recruited as a spy in the mid-1990s. When the Russians caught Skripal, they saw him that way, too, granting him a reduced sentence. So did the Americans: The intelligence chief who orchestrated his release to the West in 2010 had never heard of him when he was included in a spy swap with Moscow.
But Skripal was significant in the eyes of one man — Vladimir Putin, an intelligence officer of the same age and training. The two men had dedicated their lives to an intelligence war between the Soviet Union and the West. When that war was suspended, both struggled to adapt.
One rose, and one fell. While Skripal was trying to reinvent himself, Putin and his allies, former intelligence officers, were gathering together the strands of the old Soviet system. Gaining power, Putin began settling scores, reserving special hatred for those who had betrayed the intelligence tribe when it was most vulnerable.
Who tried to kill him?
Six months ago, Skripal was found beside his daughter, Yulia, slumped on a bench in an English city, hallucinating and foaming at the mouth. His poisoning led to a Cold War-style confrontation between Russia and the West, with both sides expelling diplomats and wrangling over who tried to kill him and why.
Last Wednesday, British officials offered specifics, accusing Russia of sending two hit men to smear Skripal’s front door handle with a nerve agent, an accusation vigorously denied by Moscow. British intelligence chiefs claim they have identified the men as members of the same Russian military intelligence unit, the GRU, or Main Intelligence Directorate, where Skripal once worked.
It is unclear if Putin played a role in the poisoning of Skripal, who survived and has gone into hiding. But dozens of interviews as well as a review of Russian court documents, show how their lives intersected at key moments.