'Poisoned' Russian spy: Counter-terror police called in to investigate 'illness' of double agent Sergei Skripal

Counter-terror police were today called in to help investigate the suspected poisoning of a Russian double agent in a Salisbury shopping mall.

Sergei Skripal, 66, and another woman, 33, reported to be his daughter Yulia, remain critically ill in hospital after being found collapsed on a bench in the Wiltshire town on Sunday. Police said they had been exposed to an “unknown substance.”

The former Russian agent was convicted in 2006 of passing state secrets to MI6 before being given refuge in the UK as part of a spy swap.

Detectives were today examining a blurred CCTV image of a man and a woman walking in an alleyway next to an Italian restaurant at the centre of the police investigation.

The man in the image appears to be of similar age to Skripal and the image was taken less than an hour before the pair were found on a near-by bench.

Sergei Skripal's daughter Yulia

The CCTV clue emerged as prominent MPs pointed the finger at Russia amid suspicions that Skripal could have been the target of an assassination attempt linked to the state.

Snap Fitness 24/7

Downing Street refused to speculate on Russian involvement, saying it was being treated as a matter for the local police force at present.

Skripal, a former colonel in the Russian military intelligence, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison, was among four convicts who were given pardons and one of two sent to Britain in 2010 in a deal that was said at the time to be the largest exchange since the Cold War.

Double agent: Sergei Skripal was found unconscious in Salisbury, where he has been living a quiet retirement

Today Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer said his specialist officers were now supporting the Wiltshire police investigation.

Scotland Yard’s Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “It’s a very unusual case and the critical thing is to get to the bottom of what’s caused these illnesses as quickly as possible.

“If necessary we will bring that investigation into the counter-terrorism network. We’re doing all the things you would expect us to do, we’re speaking to witnesses, we’re taking forensic samples at the scene, we’re doing toxicology work and that will help us to get to an answer. I can’t say any more at this stage.”

A forensics tent at the scene in Salisbury
Getty Images

It came as :

  • An Italian restaurant, Zizzi, in Salisbury, remained closed by police today “as a precaution” following the contamination scare.

  • Tom Tugendhat, Conservative chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: “This has all the hallmarks of a Russian operation.”

  • The Kremlin called Mr Skripal’s illness a “tragic situation” but added “we don’t have any information”.

Police inside a Zizzi restaurant near to where the pair were discovered in Salisbury
PA

Mr Skripal, 66, and the 33-year-old woman, were found slumped unconscious on a bench close to The Maltings shopping centre at around 4.15pm on Sunday.

Police sealed off part of the city centre and shut down Salisbury hospital’s A&E unit to protect other parents.

Passer-by Freya Church, who saw the couple on the bench, said they “looked so out of it”.

Mr Skripal was convicted in 2006 of passing state secrets to MI6 before being given refuge in the UK in 2010 as part of a spy swap with the US including Anna Chapman, who went on to become a model and TV personality.

One Russia expert said there would be few scenarios other than a poison plot that would require "a full-scale decontamination of the street and the hospital."

Probe: Police cordoned off part of Salisbury city centre after the incident
PA

She said: “He was doing some strange hand movements, looking up to the sky. It looked like they had been taking something quite strong.”

Graham Mulcock, who saw the pair being treated by paramedics, said :”They seemed to be struggling to keep the two people conscious.

“The man was sitting staring into space in a catatonic state.”

Detectives are today urgently trying to retrace Mr Skripal’s steps before he was found collapsed and appealed to any witnesses to come forward.

The CCTV shows a man and woman walking through an alleyway connecting the Zizzi restaurant and the bench where Skripal was found.

Police took away the image, shot at 3:47pm on Sunday, from a camera at Snap Fitness 24/7, according to the gym’s manager.

Cain Prince, 28, said: “Police had a good look at the footage and were interested in these two people. It was the only image they took away.

“They wanted a list of everyone in the gym between 3pm and 4pm as well.”

The pair were found by the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury
PA

Mr Prince added police said Skripal was “wearing a green coat”.

The Mill, a riverside pub in the town centre, also sealed off by police this morning amid claims they had visited the pub on Sunday.

Wiltshire police said the Castle Street branch of the chain restaurant Zizzi was “secured as a precaution” adding that Public Health England believed there was no risk to the public.

The case immediately sparked parallels with the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent who died after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 at the Millennium hotel in Mayfair in 2006.

A public inquiry concluded in 2016 that the killing of Mr Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, had “probably” been carried out with the approval of the Russian president. The Russian government has denied any responsibility.

A forensic tent stands over the bench where the pair were found unconcious
Getty Images

Former Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant, a Labour MP, said: “From what we know thus far, President Putin would not hesitate for an instance to call for the execution of somebody he considered to be a traitor, especially just before presidential elections.”

Alexander Goldfarb, a friend of Mr Litvinenko, said Mr Putin was prime suspect. “The Russian Secret Services and the regime of Mr Putin had the motive, the opportunity to do this and they did it before. It is only natural for any reasonable person to suspect them.”

He said Mr Putin would exploit the case to boost his tough image in elections due later this month.

Julian Lewis, the chair of the Defence Select Committee, told the Standard: “If a second Russian former spy has been targeted in the UK, after the reckless use of polonium to kill Mr Litvinenko, it shows that the Kremlin has not the slightest interest in a positive relationship with the West and has learned nothing from the outrage caused by its previous public act of murder.”

Anna Chapman has become a multi-millionaire with her business ventures including her own fashion line and work as a TV presenter

Sir Tony Brenton, who was British ambassador to Moscow at the time of the Litvinenko assassination, told Today: “Of course, there are parallels.” But he cautioned: “You need to be very careful about always believing these rumours.”

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the case bore “a striking similarity to the death of Litvinenko” adding : “I don’t like defaulting to a ‘red menace’ analysis, but we can’t allow London and the Home Counties to become a kind of killing field for the Russian state and its enemies.”

According to the BBC, Mr Putin declared in 2010: “Traitors will kick the bucket, trust me. These people betrayed their friends; their brothers in arms. Whatever they got in exchange — those 30 pieces of silver they were given — they will choke on them.”

Chess champion Garry Kasparov tweeted: “After the U.K.’s pathetic response to Litvinenko’s assassination with polonium in London, why wouldn’t Putin do it again?”

But Igor Sutyagin, who was part of the same swap deal as Skripal and is now a research fellow at RUSI, urged caution.

He compared the attack to the North Korea assassination of Kim Jong-un’s brother at Kuala Lumpur airport.

Sutyagin, 53, a nuclear arms expert convicted of treason by a Moscow court, said: ““In theory, anyone can be behind this, including the North Korea.

“They did a very similar thing with Kim Jong-un brother. It looks very similar.”

The assassination of Kim Jong-nam occurred on 13 February 2017 when two women attacked him with VX nerve agent.

Skripal, who lives in a £350,000 house in Salisbury, is thought to have suffered a double family tragedy after his son was killed in a car crash in Russia last year - five years after his wife suffered the same fate and was buried in Britain.

Among the Russian agents deported from America as part of the spy swap deal was Manhattan socialite and diplomat’s daughter Anna Chapman, who was married to a British man and lived in London for several years.

While the incident in Salisbury is shrouded in mystery, it comes at a time of major tension in UK-Russian relations.

A report from the Commons Foreign Affairs committee last year describing the relationship between the two countries as being at “its most strained point since the end of the Cold War”.

And in evidence to the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee, MI6 described the Russian state as “formidable adversaries”.

In 2006, Mr Litvinenko died in London after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210.

A public inquiry concluded in 2016 that the killing of Mr Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, had “probably” been carried out with the approval of the Russian president.

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