Russian dissident ill after Salisbury contamination

THE BBC HAS ALLEGED that the man who has been taken ill in the Salisbury contamination incident is Sergei Skripal, 66. The Russian national was convicted, in Russia, of spying for the UK.

Skripal, then a colonel in Russian military intelligence, was accused of being paid $100k for telling UK Secret Intelligence Service MI6 the identities of Russian agents working undercover in the UK. He was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison. In 2010, Moscow and the UK swapped imprisoned spies. Skripal was one of those released by Moscow, and he came to the UK, where he has been living ever since.

Fast forward to Sunday, 4th March – and the news was released that a man and a woman in her 30s had been taken ill at the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury late that afternoon and had been rushed to hospital.

It was an odd story to start with – and got odder as the hours went on, beginning with a news update that the couple had been exposed to an unidentified “substance”.

Decontamination teams in full protective clothing arrived at the shopping centre, and some other locations in Salisbury, and hosed down the streets. Police arrived at Skripal’s home in Salisbury – and remain there. The Accident & Emergency department at Salisbury District hospital was initially cordoned off and then declared safe.

Now, some of what happened is becoming easier to understand. If the BBC is right about the identity of the man involved in the Salisbury incident, the authorities will immediately have thought of Alexander Litvinenko.

Litvinenko, a former officer in the Russian Security Services, fell ill on 1st November 2006. No one could diagnose the condition at first – and it was then discovered that he had been poisoned by radioactive polonium-210. Traces of the dangerous substance were found in places he had recently visited and, of course, where he had been treated in hospital.

The man – probably Skripal – and a 30 year old woman remain in intensive care in Salisbury District Hospital. The police have said that they do not believe there is any risk to any member of the public and are trying to establish if a crime has taken place.

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