Russian assassin may have spiked former double agent Sergei Skripal’s pint in pub ‘hit’
A KREMLIN assassin may have spiked ex-double agent Sergei Skripal’s pint with poison, police fear.
Russian Skripal, 66, and daughter Yulia had been drinking in a pub just before they were found slumped on a shopping centre bench.
Counter-terror officers are investigating whether a potent toxin was slipped into their drinks at The Mill pub in Salisbury, Wilts.
Another theory is that an attacker could have sprayed the pair from the street.
The former spy’s family say he has been living in fear of a Russian revenge attack. A relative said: “He knew it would end badly — that he would not be left alone.”
Russia today denied attempting to assassinate Skripal — amid claims President Putin ordered the hit as a pre-election stunt.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson warned Moscow that “no attempt to take innocent life on UK soil will go unpunished”.
What we know so far:
- Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on Sunday
- Police say they were deliberately targeted with a rare nerve agent
- Cops cordoned off his house and the grave of his wife and son fearing others could be exposed to the poison
- The first Wiltshire cop on the scene is also ill in hospital - but hopes were raised for his recovery now he is awake and talking
- A blonde woman with a red handbag is being hunted after being caught on CCTV minutes before the hit
- Cops say the poison may have been slipped into a gift Yulia brought from Moscow
- Spooks also believe the Russians may have had their drinks spiked in a pub or a Zizzi's restaurant
- Theresa May has vowed revenge on Putin over the 'hit'
- Russian state TV warned 'traitor' double-agents they are not safe in the UK
- It was claimed Yulia Skripal may have been poisoned after calling for Putin to be jailed on Facebook as doctors reveal her fight for life
- It was revealed Sergei's MI6 contact had links to poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko
Both Skripal and Yulia, 33, are still critically ill tonight.
Police are scrutinising CCTV of an older man and a woman with a red handbag. It was taken near where Skripal and Yulia collapsed and about 20 minutes earlier.
Experts at the MoD’s Porton Down research centre believe the pair could have been poisoned with highly toxic thallium, a chemical once used by Saddam Hussein. The heads of MI5 and MI6 were summoned to No10 today to brief Theresa May.
Skripal, who served in Russia’s GRU military intelligence, was arrested and jailed in Moscow in 2006 for selling secrets to MI6.
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He was freed in 2010 in a swap for captured Russian agents and started a new life in Salisbury.
His wife Liudmila died from cancer aged 59 in October 2012.
In the past two years his older brother and 43-year-old son Alexandr have also died.
The apparently healthy Alexandr allegedly suffered liver failure on holiday with his girlfriend.
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