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On 4 March 2018, Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, visiting from Moscow, were found unconscious on a public bench near a shopping center in Salisbury by a passing doctor and nurse.<ref>{{cite news|title=Russian spy: What we know so far|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43315636|work=BBC News|date=8 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/05/alleged-former-russian-spy-critically-exposure-unknown-substance/|title=Alleged former Russian spy critically ill after exposure to unknown substance in Salisbury|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=5 March 2018|access-date=8 March 2018}}</ref> Paramedics took them to the hospital where it was determined that they had been poisoned with a [[nerve agent]]. A major incident was declared at [[Salisbury District Hospital]] where they remain critically ill.<ref name="auto" /><ref name="BBC050318" />
On 4 March 2018, Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, visiting from Moscow, were found unconscious on a public bench near a shopping center in Salisbury by a passing doctor and nurse.<ref>{{cite news|title=Russian spy: What we know so far|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43315636|work=BBC News|date=8 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/05/alleged-former-russian-spy-critically-exposure-unknown-substance/|title=Alleged former Russian spy critically ill after exposure to unknown substance in Salisbury|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=5 March 2018|access-date=8 March 2018}}</ref> Paramedics took them to the hospital where it was determined that they had been poisoned with a [[nerve agent]]. A major incident was declared at [[Salisbury District Hospital]] where they remain critically ill.<ref name="auto" /><ref name="BBC050318" />


A police officer was also affected and is in hospital in serious condition. He did not have direct contact with the pair, but did visit their home.{{better source|date=March 2018}}<ref>{{cite news|title=Russian spy 'attacked with nerve agent'|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43323847|work=BBC News|date=7 March 2018}}</ref> Following the incident, 21 members of the emergency services and the public were checked for symptoms, but just three casualties were hospitalised.<ref name=itv-20180308>{{cite news |url=http://www.itv.com/news/2018-03-08/nerve-agent-attack-state-russian-spy-daughter/ |title=Up to 21 people treated after nerve agent attack on Russian spy Sergei Skripal |work=ITV News |date=8 March 2018 |access-date=9 March 2018}}</ref><ref name=bbcr4wato-20180309>{{cite AV media |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09tc4xr |last=Casciani |first=Dominic |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |title=World at One |date=9 March 2018 |access-date=9 March 2018 |time=21m47s |quote=there was some erroneous reporting that there were 21 other people being treated, that is not true, there has only been these three casualties and they are all still in hospital}}</ref>
A police officer was also affected and is in hospital in serious condition. He did not have direct contact with the pair, but did visit their home.<ref>{{cite news|title=Russian spy 'attacked with nerve agent'|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43323847|work=BBC News|date=7 March 2018}}</ref> Following the incident, 21 members of the emergency services and the public were checked for symptoms, but just three casualties were hospitalised.<ref name=itv-20180308>{{cite news |url=http://www.itv.com/news/2018-03-08/nerve-agent-attack-state-russian-spy-daughter/ |title=Up to 21 people treated after nerve agent attack on Russian spy Sergei Skripal |work=ITV News |date=8 March 2018 |access-date=9 March 2018}}</ref><ref name=bbcr4wato-20180309>{{cite AV media |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09tc4xr |last=Casciani |first=Dominic |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |title=World at One |date=9 March 2018 |access-date=9 March 2018 |time=21m47s |quote=there was some erroneous reporting that there were 21 other people being treated, that is not true, there has only been these three casualties and they are all still in hospital}}</ref>


On 6 March, it was agreed under the [[National Counter Terrorism Policing Network]] that the [[Counter Terrorism Command]] based within the [[Metropolitan Police Service|Metropolitan Police]] would take over the investigation from [[Wiltshire Police]]. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, appealed for witnesses to the incident following a [[Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms|COBR]] meeting chaired by [[Home Secretary]] [[Amber Rudd]].<ref name=BBC43312625>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43312625|title='More known' about substance in spy case|date=7 March 2018|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> Rudd said the samples of the nerve agent used in the attack had been tested at the [[Defence Science and Technology Laboratory]] at [[Porton Down]] and was a "very rare" poison.<ref name="Merrick">{{cite news|author=Rob Merrick |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/russian-spy-poison-sergei-skripal-wife-murder-son-mp-tom-tugendhat-nerve-agent-kremlin-a8246381.html|title=Russian spy: Poisoned Sergei Skripal's wife and son were murdered, alleges Conservative MP|website=Independent|date=8 March 2018|access-date=8 March 2018|author=Rob Merrick}}</ref>
On 6 March, it was agreed under the [[National Counter Terrorism Policing Network]] that the [[Counter Terrorism Command]] based within the [[Metropolitan Police Service|Metropolitan Police]] would take over the investigation from [[Wiltshire Police]]. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, appealed for witnesses to the incident following a [[Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms|COBR]] meeting chaired by [[Home Secretary]] [[Amber Rudd]].<ref name=BBC43312625>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43312625|title='More known' about substance in spy case|date=7 March 2018|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> Rudd said the samples of the nerve agent used in the attack had been tested at the [[Defence Science and Technology Laboratory]] at [[Porton Down]] and was a "very rare" poison.<ref name="Merrick">{{cite news|author=Rob Merrick |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/russian-spy-poison-sergei-skripal-wife-murder-son-mp-tom-tugendhat-nerve-agent-kremlin-a8246381.html|title=Russian spy: Poisoned Sergei Skripal's wife and son were murdered, alleges Conservative MP|website=Independent|date=8 March 2018|access-date=8 March 2018|author=Rob Merrick}}</ref>

Revision as of 15:53, 10 March 2018

Sergei Skripal
Сергей Викторович Скрипаль
Born
Sergei Viktorovich Skripal

(1951-06-23) 23 June 1951 (age 73)
Soviet Union
Spouse(s)Lyudmila Skripal (c. 1952/1953–2012) (d. age 59), née Koshelnik[1]
Children
  • Alexandr Skripal (1974–2017);[2]
  • Yulia Skripal (c. 1985–)[1]

Sergei Viktorovich Skripal (Russian: Серге́й Ви́кторович Скрипаль, IPA: [sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ skrʲɪˈpalʲ], born 23 June 1951) is a Russian former military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the UK's intelligence services during the 1990s and early 2000s.[3] In December 2004, he was arrested by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and later tried, convicted of high treason, and imprisoned. He settled in the UK in 2010 following the Illegals Program spy swap.

On 4 March 2018, Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting from Moscow, were poisoned with a nerve agent.[4] They remain in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital.[5][6] The poisoning is being investigated as an attempted murder.[4]

Biography

In 1972, Skripal completed the military engineering school in Kaliningrad with qualification of a sapper-paratrooper.[7] He then studied at the Moscow Military Engineering Academy, whereafter he served in the Soviet Airborne Troops. Skripal was co-opted to the military intelligence (GRU) from the Airborne Troops. He was posted as military attaché in Spain.[7] According the FSB and other sources, in 1995, in Spain, he was recruited to the British intelligence by British intelligence agent Pablo Miller, who then posed as Antonio Alvarez de Hidalgo.[8][9]

After returning to Russia, Skripal worked in the GRU headquarters and, for a while, was acting director of the GRU personnel department.[7] Skripal held the rank of colonel when he retired, due to his having reached retirement age, in 1999.

According to Russian prosecutors, he began working for the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in 1995 and passed on state secrets, such as the identities of Russian intelligence agents. After his retirement, he worked in the Household Department of the Russian foreign ministry, while continuing to work for MI6.[10][11][12]

From 2001, Skripal worked in the ministry of municipalities of the Government of Moscow.[7]

In December 2004, Skripal was arrested in Russia and charged with "high treason in the form of espionage", and was convicted. Prosecutors initially argued for fifteen years in prison – Skripal was eventually sentenced to thirteen, in recognition of his poor health and the fact that he co-operated with investigators. The affair was not revealed to the public until after he was sentenced in August 2006.[13] Skripal's lawyers appealed the sentence.[14]

In July 2010, Skripal, along with three other Russian nationals imprisoned for espionage, was pardoned and released as part of a spy exchange for the ten Russian agents arrested in the United States as part of the Illegals Program,[15][16][17] after being pardoned by the then President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.[18] The UK government had insisted on Skripal′s name being included in the swap.[7]

He moved to Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he purchased a house in 2011.[19]

Skripal's wife died in 2012 of disseminated endometrial cancer. His daughter returned to Moscow in 2014 and worked in sales.[7] His son died aged 43 in March 2017, in unknown circumstances in Russia, on a visit to Saint Petersburg;[20] his older brother died within the two years before Skripal's poisoning.[1][21] Both his wife and his son are buried in a cemetery local to Salisbury.[22]

Poisoning, investigation, decontamination efforts

On 4 March 2018, Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, visiting from Moscow, were found unconscious on a public bench near a shopping center in Salisbury by a passing doctor and nurse.[23][24] Paramedics took them to the hospital where it was determined that they had been poisoned with a nerve agent. A major incident was declared at Salisbury District Hospital where they remain critically ill.[5][6]

A police officer was also affected and is in hospital in serious condition. He did not have direct contact with the pair, but did visit their home.[25] Following the incident, 21 members of the emergency services and the public were checked for symptoms, but just three casualties were hospitalised.[26][27]

On 6 March, it was agreed under the National Counter Terrorism Policing Network that the Counter Terrorism Command based within the Metropolitan Police would take over the investigation from Wiltshire Police. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, appealed for witnesses to the incident following a COBR meeting chaired by Home Secretary Amber Rudd.[22] Rudd said the samples of the nerve agent used in the attack had been tested at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down and was a "very rare" poison.[28]

On 9 March, 180 military experts in chemical warfare defence and decontamination as well as 18 vehicles were deployed to assist the Metropolitan Police "to remove a number of vehicles and objects from the scene" and look for any further traces of the nerve agent. The personnel were drawn mostly from the Army, including instructors from the Defence CBRN Centre and the 29 Explosive Ordnance Group, as well as from the Royal Marines and RAF. The vehicles included TPz Fuchs operated by Falcon Squadron from the Royal Tank Regiment.[29]

Official reaction and commentary

On 8 March 2018, UK Home Secretary Rudd said that the use of a nerve agent on UK soil was a "brazen and reckless act" of attempted murder "in the most cruel and public way".[30] Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons, said that the evidence indicated that the attempted murder was ordered by the Russian government, citing similarities to the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and threats against Skripal's life.[28]

A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin was on 6 March quoted as saying, ″We see this tragic situation, but we don't have information on what could have led to this, what he was engaged in″.[6]

Russian parastatal media commentary

For a few days following the poisoning, Russian state-run mainstream media outlets, especially television, largely ignored the incident.[31][32]

On 7 March 2018, Channel One′s flagship current affairs programme, Vremya, aired a personally mocking commentary on UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson′s statements about the incident that he had made in Parliament two days prior.[31][33]

The commentary was delivered by the broadcaster′s Director of News Programmes Kirill Kleimyonov and concluded with an admonishment for ″exclusively pedagogical purposes" to those who "dream of a career of a traitor to the motherland": "The profession of a traitor is one of the most hazardous in the world", as well as another one "for a broader audience": ″Don't choose England as a next country to live in. Whatever the reasons, whether you're a professional traitor to the motherland or you just hate your country in your spare time, I repeat, no matter, don't move to England. Something is not right there. Maybe it's the climate, but in recent years there have been too many strange incidents with a grave outcome. People get hanged, poisoned, they die in helicopter crashes and fall out of windows in industrial quantities. Better go to Continental Europe.″[34][35]

Kirill Kleimyonov′s commentary was accompanied by a report (footage) that highlighted previous Russia-related deaths in the UK under a cloud of suspicion, namely those of: financier Alexander Perepilichny, businessman Boris Berezovsky, ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, and radiation expert Matthew Puncher (he discovered that Litvinenko was poisoned by polonium, then died in 2016 five months after a trip to Russia[36]).[34]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Morris, Steven; Harding, Luke; Bannock, Caroline (6 March 2018). "Woman in Russian spy mystery identified as Sergei Skripal's daughter". The Guardian (US ed.). London. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  2. ^ BBCLive, Bristol: Woman in hospital with former Russian spy is his daughter 'Mr Skripal's 43-year-old son – died last year... in St Petersburg... after being rushed to hospital with liver failure', BBC, Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  3. ^ "Who is former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal?". BBC News. 5 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  4. ^ a b Dodd, Vikram; Harding, Luke; MacAskill, Ewen (8 March 2018). "Sergei Skripal: former Russian spy poisoned with nerve gas, say police". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Critically ill man 'former Russian spy'". BBC News. 5 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  6. ^ a b c "Russian spy: Russia 'has no information' on Sergei Skripal collapse". BBC News. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Сергей всегда был начеку": как жил Скрипаль в России и Британии BBC, 8 March 2018.
  8. ^ Налоговый полицейский узнал своего вербовщика: Он оказался старым знакомым контрразведчиков ФСБ Kommersant, 16 August 2007.
  9. ^ A hundred grand and hundreds of betrayed agents What was former GRU Colonel Sergey Skripal's treason against Russia? Meduza, 6 March 2018.
  10. ^ Лондон пообещал Москве жесткий ответ в случае причастности РФ к инциденту со Скрипалем Interfax, 6 March 2018.
  11. ^ Russian convicted spy colonel worked for Britain's MI6 RIA Novosti/Sputnik, 9 August 2006.
  12. ^ "Russian colonel sentenced to 13 years in prison for spying for Britain". Agence France-Presse. 9 August 2006. Archived from the original on 12 March 2007.
  13. ^ "Russian colonel jailed for spying". BBC News. 9 August 2006. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  14. ^ "Colonel convicted of spying for U.K. appeals verdict". RIA Novosti/Sputnik. 10 August 2006. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  15. ^ "Russia and US preparing spy swap". The Telegraph. 7 July 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  16. ^ Parfitt, Tom; Weaver, Matthew; Norton-Taylor, Richard (9 July 2010). "Spy swap: US and Russia hand over agents in full media glare". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  17. ^ Norton-Taylor, Richard; Parfitt, Tom; Clark, Andrew (11 July 2010). "British security services debrief two Russians freed in spy swap". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  18. ^ "Boris Johnson warns Russia over spy collapse". BBC News. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  19. ^ "Salisbury, scratchcards and sausage: the quiet life of Sergei Skripal". The Guardian. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  20. ^ Dodd, Vikram; MacAskill, Ewen; Morris, Steven (9 March 2018). "Russian spy attack: military convoy arrives at Salisbury hospital". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  21. ^ "Russian spy: Sergei Skripal collapsed alongside daughter". BBC News. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  22. ^ a b "'More known' about substance in spy case". BBC News. 7 March 2018.
  23. ^ "Russian spy: What we know so far". BBC News. 8 March 2018.
  24. ^ "Alleged former Russian spy critically ill after exposure to unknown substance in Salisbury". The Daily Telegraph. 5 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  25. ^ "Russian spy 'attacked with nerve agent'". BBC News. 7 March 2018.
  26. ^ "Up to 21 people treated after nerve agent attack on Russian spy Sergei Skripal". ITV News. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  27. ^ Casciani, Dominic (9 March 2018). World at One. BBC Radio 4. Event occurs at 21m47s. Retrieved 9 March 2018. there was some erroneous reporting that there were 21 other people being treated, that is not true, there has only been these three casualties and they are all still in hospital
  28. ^ a b Rob Merrick (8 March 2018). "Russian spy: Poisoned Sergei Skripal's wife and son were murdered, alleges Conservative MP". Independent. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  29. ^ "Military deployed after spy poisoning". BBC News. 9 March 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  30. ^ Matthew Weaver; Steven Morris; Caroline Bannock; Jessica Elgot (8 March 2018). "Russian spy attack: police officer left ill named as DS Nick Bailey". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  31. ^ a b Russian State TV Host Warns 'Traitors' After Skripal Poisoning Radio Liberty, 8 March 2018.
  32. ^ Russian spy: State TV anchor warns 'traitors', BBC, 8 March 2018.
  33. ^ Boris Johnson: UK will respond robustly if Russia poisoned spy The Guardian, 6 March 2018.
  34. ^ a b Глава МИД Великобритании Борис Джонсон предположил, что за отравлением Сергея Скрипаля стоит Москва 1tv.ru, 7 March 2018.
  35. ^ Russian state TV warns 'traitors' not to settle in England The Guardian, 9 March 2018.
  36. ^ All the times Russia allegedly carried out assassinations on British soil Business Insider, 8 march 2018.
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