Troops arrive in poison inquiry
British investigation begins into the use of a nerve agent in a Russian ex-spy’s death.
LONDON — Dozens of khaki-clad troops trained in chemical warfare were deployed on the streets of the usually sleepy English city of Salisbury on Friday as part of the investigation into the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his adult daughter.
The sight of the soldiers, and forensic experts in bright yellow hazmat suits, added to the increasingly surreal scenes in a city best known for its towering medieval cathedral and its proximity to the ancient Stonehenge monument.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury near the River Avon on Sunday. They remained in critical condition at a hospital Friday, poisoned with what authorities say is a rare nerve agent.
A police officer who helped investigate was in serious condition, and a total of 21 people have received medical treatment.
Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, was convicted by Russian authorities in 2006 of spying for Britain and released by Moscow in 2010 as part of a spy swap. The 66-year-old former agent had been living quietly in Salisbury, 80 miles southwest of London.
Counter-terrorism detectives are leading a vast investigation. One line of inquiry is whether the two were poisoned at Skripal’s modest suburban house before going out for Sunday lunch and a visit to a pub.
On Friday, police called in about 180 marines, soldiers and air force personnel with expertise in chemical weapons, decontamination and logistics to help with the investigation and to remove vehicles that might be contaminated. Military vehicles arrived at Salisbury District Hospital, where the victims are being treated, to take away a police car.
Authorities said there was no risk to the public . Unlike radioactive poisons, nerve agents dissipate quickly.
Detectives were retracing the Skripals’ movements as they try to discover how the toxin was administered and where it was made.
Authorities cordoned off Skripal’s house, a car, a restaurant, a pub and the cemetery where Skripal’s wife, Lyudmila, is buried and where there is also a memorial headstone for his son, Alexander.
Lyudmila Skripal died of cancer in 2012. Alexander died last year at 43. The cause is unclear: Some reports say he died in a car accident in Russia, others that he died of liver failure.
At the graveyard, forensic officers in protective gear could be seen erecting a blue tent on Friday.
Former London police chief Ian Blair said Friday that the officer who is seriously ill had visited Skripal’s house — suggesting the nerve agent may have been delivered there.
Blair told BBC radio that Detective Sgt. Nick Bailey had “actually been to the house, whereas there is a doctor who looked after the patients in the open who hasn’t been affected at all. There may be some clues floating around in here.”
Highly toxic and banned in almost all countries, nerve agents require expertise to manufacture — leading some to suspect that whoever poisoned Skripal had the backing of a state government.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow might be willing to help with the investigation, but expressed resentment at suggestions that the Kremlin was behind the attack.