Businessman was left fighting for life after being targeted at John Terry’s former mansion weeks before Salisbury attack
POLICE investigated a suspected attempt to poison a Russian enemy of President Putin in John Terry’s former mansion — just weeks before the Salisbury attack.
Businessman Georgy “Egor” Shuppe, 46, was left fighting for life after collapsing at the £5million house, where he now lives.
A forensic team spent a week combing the property and dozens of officers worked on the case.
Detectives are said to have worked on the theory Shuppe was targeted by an assassin who arrived at the mansion by car.
But the investigation was quietly shut down after officers decided Shuppe had a “medical” collapse.
He was released from hospital after ten days and details of the suspected attack were never released.
But neighbours on Sunday claimed the December incident was brushed under the carpet by authorities.
Shuppe is the ex son-in-law of exiled Russian oligarch and Putin critic Boris Berezovsky.
Three months before Shuppe was taken ill, a judge rejected Russia’s attempt to extradite him on a trumped up murder charge.
On Sunday one of Shuppe’s bodyguards at the mansion in Oxshott, Surrey, nodded in confirmation when asked about a poisoning.
'I survived two hits'
By Tom Wells, Chief Reporter
A FORMER Russian spy who defected to Britain claims he is one of eight targets Putin wants dead.
Boris Karpichkov, 59, said he survived a hit by a Kremlin assassin in New Zealand in 2006.
He revealed a “beggar” tried to grab his laptop bag before he felt a gust in his face. Karpichkov said he soon developed flu-like symptoms and within a couple of months lost five stone and all his body hair.
He fell ill again the following year and claims his carpets were poisoned.
Karpichkov said the seven other Russian dissident targets include Oleg Gordievsky, 79, Britain’s top Cold War double agent, and Igor Sutyagin, 53, a nuclear expert accused of spying for the UK.
He said it had been “touch and go” for Shuppe. Speaking with a Russian accent, he added: “He’s all right now.
"Russians are now very afraid after what happened in Salisbury.”
A relative of Shuppe’s, asked about the poisoning, also nodded and repeatedly said “Yes.”
He added: “Obviously, he does not want much known about him.”
Shuppe moved to Oxshott last year from Chelsea for extra security.
The mansion is on a private estate that has electronic gates and CCTV.
One of Shuppe’s neighbours said last week’s Salisbury nerve agent attack on ex-Russian double agent Sergei and his daughter Yulia had convinced him that a similar attempt had been staged on their estate.
He added: “At the time several of us thought it was an attempt on his life.
"But now with Salisbury it fuels our suspicions. He has three bodyguards by his side all the time.”
Surrey Police said: “We are satisfied this was a non-suspicious medical episode. There were no arrests.”
In August Russia tried to extradite Moscow-born Shuppe, claiming he and a colleague ordered the killing of businessman Alexander Mineev.
Mineev was shot in Korolev, Russia, in 2014.
Pub and car check in spy toxin probe
COPS and military teams in bio-hazard suits were still investigating how Sergei Skripal was poisoned.
Working with maps and diagrams, they probed sites in Salisbury identified as possible sources of the nerve agent.
They include The Mill pub, where floodlights were carried inside as investigations looked likely to carry on late into the night.
Army trucks picked up two marked cop cars and six unmarked vehicles as fears of lingering contamination continued. Teams in gas masks had numbered each car with spray paint before removal.
Shuppe’s lawyers successfully argued it was a “politically motivated” move by Putin’s regime. Barrister Hugo Keith said: “In Shuppe’s case an association with Boris Berezovsky is a kiss of death.”
Judge Kenneth Grant rejected extradition. He ruled that Shuppe’s links to Berezovsky — found hanged at his home in Ascot, Berks in 2013 in unexplained circumstances — meant he would not get a fair trial.
Afterwards Shuppe said: “I cannot comment.
"It could be dangerous.”
Shuppe became Berezovsky’s business partner after marrying his daughter Ekaterina.
They moved to the UK in 2004 and split in 2012.
Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-KGB spy murdered by a Kremlin assassin in London with radioactive polonium in 2006, fled to Britain after accusing bosses of plotting to kill Berezovsky.
Mystery of mask man
By Tom Wells, James Mills and Andrew Jehring
A MASKED man seen acting “aggressively” minutes before Sergei Skripal was found poisoned was being hunted by police last night.
The “threatening” figure, dressed in black, had his nose and mouth hidden, witnesses said on Sunday.
He was spotted 100 yards from the bench where Skripal, 66, and daughter Yulia, 33, were slumped unconscious.
One witness said: “He looked threatening and aggressive. There was something not right about him. It wasn’t cold, so it didn’t make sense that he had his hood up and his face covered.”
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Litvinenko’s widow Marina said the Salisbury attack happened because the UK did not respond strongly enough to her husband’s murder.
She added: “The lesson was not learned.”
Former England captain Terry rented the mansion before buying another nearby in 2014.
Outfits of staff at Zizi burned
By Tom Wells, Andrew Jehring and James Mills
UNIFORMS of staff at the restaurant Sergei Skripal ate at before collapsing were burned days before a contamination warning was issued to customers.
UK Chief Medical Officer Prof Dame Sally Davies on Sunday urged up to 500 people who visited Zizzi and the nearby Mill pub last Sunday or Monday to wash clothing.
She said phones, bags, jewellery and even glasses should also be wiped down to avoid “prolonged long-term exposure” to the lethal toxic nerve agent.
But the advice came a week after the suspected Kremlin-backed hit on the ex-Russian spook in Salisbury, Wilts.
And Zizzi staff said on Sunday officials took their work clothes and items for incineration last week.
Officials said traces of the poison had been found at both venues, still being decontaminated.
Cops have still not publicly identified the chemical which has left Skripal, 66, and daughter Yulia, 33, in critical conditions.
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