Former Russian spy critically ill in Britain after suspected poisoning

LONDON — It is a spy drama — and it is real. An aging Russian double agent is found slumped beside his daughter on a park bench in a quiet English town, both near death, apparently poisoned. Now Scotland Yard is on the case.

Britain’s counterterrorism investigators on Tuesday took over the investigation into what caused a balding, former Soviet-era spy, 66-year-old Sergei Skripal, to collapse on Sunday, leaving him staring into space, beside his comatose daughter, 33-year-old Yulia.

The pair remain in critical condition in a Salisbury hospital.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson cautioned Tuesday it would be “wrong to the fast-moving investigation, but warned if Russia was found to be responsible, the British government would respond “robustly.”

The circumstances — two people, both in critical condition just minutes after they appear healthy and ambling past a CCTV security camera — immediately rang red bells in security circles.

The ex-spy Skripal was, according to neighbors, living a quiet life in Salisbury. He was a man with a past. He had enemies.

Skripal was jailed in Russia in 2006 after he was convicted of passing the names of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe to MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service.

In 2010, he was handed over to Britain as one of four prisoners released by Moscow in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents living in the United States.

The high-profile spy swap took place on an airport tarmac in Vienna — like something out of a Cold War John LeCarré novel.

The strange doings in Salisbury also immediately called to mind the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, who died in a London hospital bed three weeks after drinking tea laced with a mysterious radioactive substance.

In 2016, a 300-page British government inquiry found that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “probably approved” the killing of Litvinenko, who was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and a former KGB operative.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...420060cb7bd_story.html?utm_term=.b8c902806379

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How many more times we need to see this type of obvious murder attempts by the Kremlin? Your former agents may decide to live in the "civilized" part of the world. This shouldn't be a reason to put an end to their lives. No good.

 

Sure it's not an overdose of carfentanyl?

 

This just came in:

"UK foreign secretary says if Russian involvement proven in collapse of former spy and daughter, UK will respond 'appropriately and robustly"

Source: France 24.

When Litvinenko poisoned by Polinium 210, Scotland Yard concluded:

"The evidence suggests that the only credible explanation is in one way or another the Russian state is involved in Litvinenko's murder"

A state sponsored killing... Enough to give you the chills... : (

 

The UK will “respond appropriately and robustly” if the Russian state is found to have been involved in poisoning the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripaland his daughter Yulia in Salisbury on Sunday, Boris Johnson has said, including reconsidering its participation in the World Cup.

The foreign secretary said it was “very difficult to see how UK representation at that event could go ahead in the normal way” if Russian state involvement was proved, though a Foreign Office source said that was not a reference to the England team’s participation.

Johnson said he was not yet pointing fingers at the Kremlin, but adding that there were “echoes of the death of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006”.

“I say to governments around the world that no attempt to take innocent life on UK soil will go unsanctioned or unpunished,” Johnson said, later calling the Russian state “in many respects a malign and disruptive force”.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-will-respond-robustly-if-russia-poisoned-spy

 

I'm sure that MI6 will put their best man on this case ... provided he comes out of hiding. Christopher Steele, last seen boarding a junket headed for Thailand, accompanied by a well known Russian prostitute has yet to contact his handlers at Buzzfeed. Steele, remains incommunicado.

 

Ask Russians how much he got paid for the dossier... lol...

 

Yes I saw this in the news a day or so ago, FSB taking revenge... how unexpected

 

Another "Putin's Revenge."

Back when America was still great, we use to execute American citizens for spying and espionage against the USA like the Rosenbergs.

Today in a PC America traitors like John Walker, Jonathan Pollard, Edward Snowden, Christopher Boyce and Andrew Dalton (Falcon and the Snowman), Bradley "Chelsea" Manning and Bowe Bergdahl who the Obama White House claimed served with “honor and distinction,” have become heroes on the left in America.

 

Strange how these deaths always happen in Britain, and to double agents no doubt. I guess they consider them dispensable, besides they can always throw the blame on Russia and reap the propaganda rewards. I mean how many people would suspect London, except Russian officials who won't dare step into a British hospital.

Anyway I think the MI6 specialty is auto accidents, (Princess Diana comes to mind), as well as poisonings. Polonium seems to be the one of choice. But Britain's not alone, there is also Turkey's MIT which specializes in false flag attacks, especially chemical ones. And we also have Ukraine's GRU, that specializes in plane accidents, (mainly commercial ones), and assassinations of Russians. (mostly ambassadors and heroes).

 

When something happens in Russia, Moscow's to blame. When something happens in London Moscow's to blame.

​

Damn Russians they are everywhere.​

 

I guess there's been too many russian agents"smoked out" over the decades. Seems Putinka looking to close as many "loopholes" as possible.

 

Yeah, since we all know Russians poison ex-spies in England, the smart thing for them to do is ...... poison another ex-spy in England.

Oh, them Russians. They're so clever. No one will ever figure it out!

Meanwhile, back in reality, the bullshit of this story is so deep you need hip-waders.

 

Putin has murdered someone else.

 

Sure thing. Russia captured and convicted Scripal years ago. Having all the legal opportunity to even behead him. But FSB was waiting... Then they exchanged Scripal for Russian agents and left for years in the hands of british secret services for them to get everything he has ever known. FSB was waiting... And just at the moment when killing Scripal was the most difficult and useless and dangerous FSB decided to perform such an action in a city full of cameras... leaving the poison at the place of the crime.

BTW when a Russian small transport plane killed around 30 Russians in Syria the Internet blasted with suspections of the US agents who should have performed it. But Russian officials told that firstly we need to wait till the end of the investigation. And mister Johnson has already promised to some hostile actions.

The most possible option is that the aging and useless agent was killed to reduce the costs for active operatives in order to create propaganda issue and support the anti-Russian hysteria. It teaches everyone to never trust and mess up with the western secret agencies game. They will kill anyone for a penny or newspaper article.

 

Who? I said "attempt" tho...

 

I don't think anybody has so far blamed Russia for the 39 lives -including a MAJOR GENERAL- lost in the latest plane crash...

 

Moreover. Noone blamed the US or GB, although these people were much more important for modern policy than a 70-years old ex-spy.

 

OP

But not to worry, folks - the British Foreign Secretary is on the case . . .

https://www.ft.com/video/699687c8-9...playlist-name=editors-picks&playlist-offset=4

Jeez what an embarrassment this man is. (But then again, aren't they all ) I think I'm right in saying that the 'robust sanction' is his threat to stay away from the world cup in Moscow. I daresay Putin couldn't sleep a wink last night, worrying about that?

(Sorry about the crap at the beginning but it's only a few seconds)

 

Ok I admit... I'm pointing the finger at the obvious.. which is the FSB and pattern of using poison, but he was included in a prisoner swap deal and the Kremlin may not have been too happy with that swap... at the same time I acknowledge it could have been one of the many parties he injured... he was imo a dead man walking the moment he committed treason

 

OP

After all the hysterical anti-Russia, anti-Putin sound and fury of the last 12 hours, there are gonna be a lot of diplomatic red faces if it turns out he and his dodder ( ) had recently eaten in that pizzeria, and had succumbed to a severe case of acute gastroenteritis. I wonder how our brilliant 'government' (I use the word loosely!) would handle that?

 

Looking at a list of murders performed abroad by soviet special services I don't see any connectivity with poison. The link exists however in western propaganda. During a year I always see poisoning scandals to blame the 'bad guys' for. Not only Russia. North Korea as well. So if we talk of a 'pattern' I would rather see these stories as pattern for propaganda and not for FSB (BTW FSB is active INSIDE Russia and the agency which is busy abroad is called GRU - Chief Investigation Department).
For sure Moscow was not happy discovering that a guy from such a sensitive department is working against Russia. On the other hand if Russia didn't want to change him it wouldn't. The revenge is not a serious task for killing someone of any importance. The only possible reason was to prevent something or to get some result because of the action. The first reason is obviously not valid. If Skripal knew anything he would tell it to british services long ago. And out of all the possible results of his death or damage I don't see anything of value for Russia. But I see that it is a good thing for Johnson to start bullying Russian held championship of football and possible further 'sanctions'. If Johnson told it without such an excuse it wouldn't have had such a support among western public.

Of course it's better not to interfere with agencies of every kind at all. Or at least to serve only one master. Double agents don't live a long and happy life and never get any good fame after them.

 

meatfest with extra Thalium....yum

 

Well then let me enlighten you,

The long, terrifying history of Russian dissidents being poisoned abroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europ...y-of-Russian-dissidents-being-poisoned-abroad

 

Well, if I were a Russian traitor I would think twice before getting a shelter in the United Kingdom. It looks extremely dangerous place for Russian fugitives... Even poor Berezovski, who hanged himself on a bathroom towel, was probably murdered, they say now. Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do, what you gonna do, when they come for you... Not that I would care too much about the fates of the traitors, but why FSB or whoever else acts in England so impudently? One fell down out of the window, one crashed in a helicopter, one died of heart attack, one was poisoned with polonium, one hanged himself and so on, and so on... Looks like even Russia is not so popular place for Russian poisonings...

 

Seems odd that a country as powerful as Russia botched up an assassination attempt