Not so fast, Mr Bond…
So the truth is finally out. Russia poisoned the ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil using the Russian-made nerve agent Novichok. The Russian ambassador to Britain has been given until the end of today to explain his country’s degree of guilt (not whether Russia is guilty or not, just how guilty it is) following which unspecified sanctions will be imposed. The BBC says so, so it must be true:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43381880
So that’s it then: case closed. Or is it? There are several things about this case which I find deeply troubling. Let’s start by looking at the facts, insofar as they can be established.
According to the BBC, “Colonel Skripal is a retired Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted of passing the identities of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe to the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. He was jailed for 13 years by Russia in 2006. In July 2010, he was one of four prisoners released by Moscow in exchange for 10 Russian spies arrested by the FBI as part of a swap. He was later flown to the UK.” Since then, he has lived in relative obscurity in Salisbury, England until last week when he was found in a critical condition on a bench outside a shopping centre, together with his daughter. They had just been to a nearby pub/restaurant, and traces of the Novichok poison were also found there, suggesting that it may have been administered there.
Some of these facts are disputed – for example, Skripal’s family say that he was not a double agent and that the allegations against him were fabricated. But let’s suppose that all of the above is true. Here are my problems with it:
Firstly, where is Russia’s motive for killing him? They had him in their custody between 2006-2010 and presumably, if they wanted to kill him, they could easily have done it then, and just made him disappear quietly, and few people would have known or cared. But they didn’t. So why wait until now, 8 years later, and attempt to kill him in the full glare of international publicity?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
