Russian flag flies in English town where ex-spy was poisoned

LONDON — Two weeks before the anniversary of a nerve-agent attack against a former Russian spy in Salisbury, England, someone unfurled a large Russian flag on the city’s cathedral overnight, in what residents took to be a mockery of the ordeal they suffered last year.

Images of the Russian flag, fluttering from scaffolding around the cathedral, were widely circulated on social media Sunday morning.

The dean of Salisbury, Nicholas Papadopulos, called it “a remarkably stupid thing to do.”

He said it “makes light of the huge personal tragedies involved, and the damage done to the city by the unprecedented nerve agent attacks on Salisbury last year.” The attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, with a military-grade nerve agent on March 4, upended life in Salisbury for much of last year and soured diplomatic relations between Russia and Britain.

Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, survived the attack, but Salisbury suffered sprawling collateral damage.