Former Russian spy critically ill in Britain after exposure to unidentified substance: source

[sglowrider]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...o-unidentified-substance-source-idUSKBN1GH2UX

Former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, who was convicted in 2006 of spying for Britain, was critically ill on Monday after exposure to unidentified substance in Britain, a source close to the investigation told Reuters.
Skripal, once a colonel in Russia’s GRU military intelligence, was convicted in Russian of betraying agents to British intelligence before he was later swapped as part of a Cold War style spy swap in Vienna in 2010.

Police said two people had been found unconscious on a bench on Sunday in the city of Salisbury. They were being treated for“suspected exposure to an unknown substance” and they remained critically ill, police said.
It was unclear what the substance was.

Additional info:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/former-russian-spy-given-refuge-12132285

Salisbury A&E closed over 'major incident' this afternoon

A hospital was forced to shut down and decontaminate its accident and emergency department
The long arm of the Russians at play? Not for the first time they have poisoned ex-Russian officials abroad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko

 

[sglowrider]

The Spy with the Louis Vuitton bag: How Sergei Skripal narrowly avoided execution after betraying his Russian military bosses by selling secrets to MI6 only to be given a new life living in a £340,000 house in Wiltshire

• Sergei Skripal, 66, and a woman collapsed at a shopping centre on Sunday
• The pair were admitted to Salisbury District Hospital in a critical condition
• He was later revealed by the media to be 'the spy with the Louis Vuitton bag'
• Skripal was accused of spying for Britain and sentenced to 13 years in prison
• Following his sentencing in 2006 he was later released in a swap for Russian spies with the US in 2010

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5465365/How-Sergei-Skripal-narrowly-avoided-execution.html

Looks like the person who was swapped for, Anna Chapman had a pretty good deal.

 

[sglowrider]

UK Security services hunting network of 'state-sponsored actors' over nerve agent attack
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...lia-russia-putin-network-police-a8244941.html

Britain’s security services are hunting a network of highly-trained assassins suspected of launching a nerve agent attack on a Russian spy and his daughter, sources say.
The brutal and sophisticated method used to target Sergei Skripal and his daughter – which also left a police officer seriously ill – point towards “either present or past state-sponsored actors”, investigators have told The Independent.

A source said that it would not, technically, have been difficult to make but its lethality meant would almost certainly have needed a specialist laboratory to manufacture.

Message for a few folks in DC?

 

[sglowrider]

Hit Putin's Red mafia: Britain poised to smash Russian president's pals' dirty cash after nerve agent attack
Home Secretary Amber Rudd today threatened Russia with “quiet” retribution if there was evidence Putin was behind the attack on ex-Kremlin agent Sergei Skripal
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hit-putins-red-mafia-britain-12154303

Britain was last night poised to smash Vladimir Putin ’s network of gangster allies with cash and travel freezes – as the nerve agent toll hit 21.
Cut off from billions in assets and cash, and with visas restricted, the Russian President’s powerful Red Mafia supporters could turn against him during his election campaign.

Under pressure to respond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd today threatened Russia with “quiet” retribution if there was evidence Putin was behind the attack.
And a source told the Daily Mirror this meant tougher sanctions for Putin’s pals with financial interests in London and Europe.
He said: “The way to hurt Putin is to cripple the ability of his wealthy friends to travel where they like, squeeze their finances and obliterate their jet-set lifestyles.
“If they do that, the oligarchs could turn on Putin and destabilise his regime. He is more vulnerable than people think.”

 

[Hoosier_Hack]

Guys the Russians are far from the force they were in the Cold War.... they have one Military port outside Russia... the aircraft carrier they sent to Syria left an oil streak all the way there. They towed it back...

Come on

 

[sglowrider]

Guys the Russians are far from the force they were in the Cold War.... they have one Military port outside Russia... the aircraft carrier they sent to Syria left an oil streak all the way there. They towed it back...

Come on

Thats your litmus test?

9-11 only cost OBL $250k and look at the impact.

 

[Hoosier_Hack]

Thats your litmus test?

9-11 only cost OBL $250k and look at the impact.

It cost OBL his life and his entire reason for existence ..... I know that doesn’t mean much to you libs

No it isn’t my litmus test .... you said that. They can cause a lot of havoc and so can the teenager in the basement..... and so can China who has been a proven player in digital theft....you make them out to be the Bear on the door step.... maybe it is a generational thing. My generation saw much worst from them.... they don’t scare me right now but we should shut them down if possible with the online crap

 

[sglowrider]

Russian whistleblower 'appeared nervous and vomited repeatedly' before mysterious death, inquest hears
Businessman helping to expose £160m money laundering operation appeared 'on another planet' day before he collapsed and died, says secret lover
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ead-vomiting-inquest-old-bailey-a8300466.html

On his return home to Weybridge, Surrey, the next day, his wife made him his favourite traditional sorrel soup, the inquest has heard. He later collapsed and died while out jogging.The businessman’s death was originally attributed to natural causes, but traces of a chemical that can be found in the poisonous plant Gelsemium elegans were later found in his stomach.