Failure will make agents more dangerous

Russia’s failure to assassinate former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury will make it more dangerous because it will learn from its mistakes, says the intelligence and security committee report.

It means that future attacks will be even harder to detect as Russia improves its training and tactics to avoid the same errors, said the MPS in their longawaited report on Russia.

The two agents’ botched attempt to kill Mr Skripal with a nerve agent saw them caught on multiple CCTV cameras. They then appeared in a bizarre interview on Russian television in which they claimed to be two gay men drawn to a sleepy English town by a gothic cathedral and its 123-metre spire.

Media investigators then revealed that classified passport details for the two men led directly to Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU).

These mistakes were followed by a heavy-handed attempt to infiltrate the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

But the MPS warned: “Whilst these attacks demonstrate that the Russian Intelligence Services (RIS) are not infallible, it would be foolhardy to think that they are any less dangerous because of these mistakes.

“Indeed, the likelihood is that the RIS will learn from their errors, and become more difficult to detect and protect against as a result.”