Russian spy: What we know so far
March 8, 2018 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Police have launched an attempted murder investigation after a former Russian spy and his daughter were exposed to a nerve agent in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Sergei Skripal, 66, and Yulia Skripal, 33, remain in a critical condition after being found slumped on a shopping centre bench on Sunday afternoon.
The first police officer to reach the scene is also in a serious condition in hospital but Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on Thursday he was “talking and engaging”.
Russia has denied any involvement. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says the country will respond “robustly” if Moscow is found to have been behind the incident.
So what exactly is going on?
Timeline of events
Mr Skripal was found alongside his daughter on a bench near the Maltings shopping centre on 4 March.
Officers were alerted to the incident by a concerned member of the public at about 16:15 GMT.
CCTV footage released by police shows two people walking through an alley near the area where Mr Skripal and his daughter collapsed.
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The pair, who did not have any visible injuries, were taken to Salisbury District Hospital where they are being treated in intensive care.
The first police officer to reach the scene is also seriously ill in hospital.
Two other police officers were treated in hospital for minor symptoms – believed to be itchy eyes and wheezing.
The nearby Zizzi restaurant and the Bishop’s Mill pub remain sealed off as a precaution.
The ‘quintessentially English’ home of a Russian spy
Who is Sergei Skripal?
Col Skripal, 66, had been living in Salisbury after being released by Russia in 2010
Colonel Skripal is a retired Russian military intelligence officer who was jailed for 13 years by Russia in 2006.
He was convicted of passing the identities of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe to the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.
In July 2010, he was one of four prisoners released by Moscow in exchange for 10 Russian spies arrested by the FBI as part of a swap. He was later flown to the UK.
According to BBC Newsnight’s diplomatic editor Mark Urban, in recent years Col Skripal gave lectures at military academies offering insights into Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU.
- Read more about Sergei Skripal’s background here.
- Putin, power and poison: Russia’s elite FSB spy club
Daughter, and family deaths
Image copyright
Yulia Skripal/Facebook
Yulia Skripal, from Moscow, was found on the bench alongside her father
Daughter Yulia Skripal, based in Moscow, would visit Mr Skripal regularly, relatives have told the BBC.
Mr Skripal’s wife, elder brother and his son have died in the past two years – some in suspicious circumstances, the family believe.
His son, Alexander Skripal, died aged 43 last July in St Petersburg from liver failure.
Alexander Skripal is buried in Salisbury close to his mother, Liudmila Skripal, who died of cancer in 2012.
Mr Skripal’s family deny that he worked for MI6, and believe that the espionage case was fabricated by Russia.
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What are police doing?
Image copyright
PA
Police have cordoned off the area where the pair were found
Police say the pair were poisoned by a nerve agent and are treating the case as attempted murder.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, head of counter-terrorism operations, said the Skripals had been “targeted specifically”.
The forensic work in Salisbury may take several days, he said. He asked anyone with information to call 999.
Counter Terrorism Police took over the investigation from Wiltshire Police on Tuesday – but said a terrorist incident had not been declared.
Scientists at the UK’s military research facility at Porton Down have spent days examining the substance which harmed the Skripals.
Police said they wanted to speak to anyone who was in the centre of Salisbury on Sunday afternoon, particularly those who ate at Zizzi or drank in the Bishop’s Mill pub between 13:00 GMT and 16:00 GMT.
How has the government responded?
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the investigation would be “lengthy and ongoing” and would respond to evidence not “rumour”, speaking after a meeting of the government’s emergency committee Cobra.
On Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told MPs the UK would respond “robustly” to any evidence of Russian state responsibility in the case – but said he was not pointing fingers.
He said a response could include sanctions, and asking UK dignitaries not to attend the World Cup in Russia this summer.
What has Russia said?
Russia has dismissed suggestions linking Moscow with the incident.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Mr Skripal’s illness a “tragic situation” but said “we don’t have any information” – and added that Moscow was open to co-operating with British police if requested.
In a statement, the Russian embassy in London said: “Media reports create an impression of a planned operation by the Russian special services, which is completely untrue.”
Has this happened in the UK before?
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Getty Images
The possibility of an unknown substance being involved has drawn comparisons with the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.
The former Russian intelligence officer died in London after drinking tea laced with a radioactive substance.
A public inquiry concluded that his killing had probably been carried out with the approval of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
- Who was Alexander Litvinenko?
What did locals see?
Eyewitness Freya Church said she saw a man and a woman looking unwell on a bench on the afternoon of 4 March.
“They looked so out of it that I thought even if I did step in I wasn’t sure how I could help,” she said. “It looked like they had been taking something quite strong.”
Another passer-by, Jamie Paine, said the woman he saw was frothing at the mouth and her eyes “were wide open but completely white”.
Image copyright
PA
A cordon remains in place outside a nearby Zizzi restaurant
Resident Graham Mulcock said he saw emergency services personnel attending to two people on a bench from the window of his flat in the city centre.
“You could see the paramedics were really worried,” he said.
“The man was just sitting there, staring into space, eyes wide open in this catatonic state with paramedics all over him.”
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