Britain warned Tuesday it would respond “robustly” if it
emerged that a government was behind the suspected
poisoning of a former Russian double agent found
unconscious on a street bench in England.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson even suggested England
could pull out of the 2018 football World Cup in Russia if
it were shown to be behind the incident.
Sergei Skripal was a former colonel in Russian military
intelligence who spied for Britain and moved there in a
spy swap in 2010. He was found outside a shopping
centre along with his daughter Yulia in the southwestern
English city of Salisbury on Sunday.
The pair were treated for “suspected exposure to an
unknown substance” and are in a critical condition in a
local hospital, police said in a statement.
Johnson told the House of Commons that it was too soon
to establish the cause of the “disturbing” incident, which
caused a major security alert in the normally quiet city.
But he noted “echoes” of the 2006 poisoning in London of
Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko. A British inquiry ruled
that attack was likely ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
“Should evidence emerge that implies state responsibility,
then Her Majesty’s government will respond appropriately
and robustly,” Johnson said.
“Though I am not now pointing fingers, I say to
governments around the world that no attempt to take
innocent life on UK soil will go either unsanctioned or
unpunished.”
Johnson went on however to refer indirectly to suspected
Russian involvement. If that is confirmed, he said, “it will
be difficult to see how UK representation at the World Cup
can go ahead.”
– Government briefed –
Britain’s National Security Council discussed the Skripal
affair at a meeting on Wednesday, where Prime Minister
Theresa May, Johnson and senior ministers were updated
on the ongoing investigation, according to a government
spokesman.
The incident has not been linked to terror, but Britain’s
national counter-terrorism unit took control of the case
Tuesday, saying it had the specialist expertise to deal
with such “unusual circumstances”.
A cordon remained in place Tuesday where Skripal, 66,
and his 33-year-old daughter were found, while a
restaurant on a street nearby, Zizzi, was also closed.
Police earlier revealed that a number of emergency
services personnel required medical assessment after the
incident, but stressed there was no risk to public health.
– UK-Russia tensions –
The murder of Litvinenko, an ex-Russian spy killed by
radioactive polonium in his tea, led to a major diplomatic
split between London and Moscow.
A British inquiry ruled in 2016 that Putin “probably
approved” the killing and identified two Russians, Andrei
Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, as the prime suspects.
Many MPs warned Tuesday of the current threat posed
by Moscow, citing its actions in Ukraine and cyber-
attacks. There are also tensions over Russia’s role in the
Syrian conflict.
The chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs
committee, Tom Tugendhat, said the early evidence
pointed to Russia’s involvement in the Salisbury incident.
“It is too early to say whether it is certain or not, but it
certainly bears all the hallmarks of a Russian attack,” he
said.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on
Tuesday that Russia had no information about the cause
of the “tragic situation”.
He said London had not made any requests for
assistance in the investigation, but added: “Moscow is
always ready for cooperation.”
Lugovoi, who is an MP in the Russian parliament,
dismissed suspicions of poisoning as British “phobias”,
saying Skripal was of no interest to the authorities.
– ‘Deja vu’ –
Skripal was sentenced to 13 years in jail in Russia in 2006
for betraying Russian intelligence agents to Britain’s MI6
secret service.
But he was pardoned before being flown to Britain as part
of a high-profile spy swap involving Russia and the United
States in 2010.
Igor Sutyagin, who also went to Britain in the swap, said
he could not understand why Skripal would be targeted.
“He confessed, was amnestied and had served part of his
sentence,” he told Radio Free Europe.
However, Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, told The Times
newspaper that the case brought on a “kind of deja vu”.
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