ADVERTISEMENT
  • The Membership Club
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Sergei Skripal

Sergei Skripal in Moscow court. Photo: August 2006 (Photo Credit: BBC)

UK authorities know more about substance that made Russian ex-spy ill

byAgency Report
March 7, 2018
3 min read

The British authorities know more about a substance which Russian ex-spy, Sergei Skripal, was exposed to before he became critically ill, interior minister Amber Rudd said on Wednesday.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are both in hospital in critical condition after being found unconscious on Sunday on a bench near a shopping centre in the southern English city of Salisbury.

“We do know more about the substance and the police will be making a further statement this afternoon in order to share some of that,” Rudd told reporters after chairing a meeting of top ministers to discuss the Skripal incident.

Skripal, once a colonel in Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, and his daughter, were found slumped unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the southern English city of Salisbury on Sunday afternoon.

Both remain critically ill in intensive care.

“The focus at this time is to establish what has caused these people to become critically ill,” Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer, said.

“This investigation is at the early stages and any speculation is unhelpful at this time,” said Rowley.

Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation and Britain’s military research laboratory at Porton Down is trying to identify the substance which caused Skripal, 66, and his daughter to collapse.

Related Coverage

The suspected poisoning prompted Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to say on Tuesday that if Russia were behind the incident then Britain could look again at sanctions and take other measures to punish what he cast as a “malign and disruptive” state.

RelatedNews

Nigeria police rescue eight abducted health workers

EXCLUSIVE: Again, child sexual abuse rocks another Akwa Ibom school

EXCLUSIVE: 127 Soldiers resign from Nigerian Army

Blasphemy: Court frees 13-year-old, orders retrial of musician sentenced to death

Russia denied any involvement, scolded Johnson for “wild” comments and said anti-Russian hysteria was being whipped up intentionally to damage relations with London.

A source close to the investigation said that Russian involvement in the Skripal poisoning was just one of the versions being looked at by counter-terrorism investigators with assistance from the MI5 domestic intelligence agency.

Police said new cordons had been added near Solstice Park, a business park, in the nearby town of Amesbury.

Dangote adbanner 728x90_2 (1)

They have sealed off the area of Salisbury where Skripal was found as well as the Zizzi pizza restaurant where they dined and the Bishop’s Mill pub where they had a drink.

Some emergency workers were treated after the incident and one remains in hospital.

The British capital has been dubbed “Londongrad” due to the large amounts of Russian wealth which have flowed westwards since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

It is the Western city of choice for many oligarchs from the former Soviet Union.

Britain has specifically drawn parallels with the 2006 murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko who was killed with radioactive polonium-210 in London.

A previous British inquiry said Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved the murder of Litvinenko, who died after drinking green tea laced with the rare and very potent radioactive isotope at London’s Millennium Hotel.

ADVERTISEMENT

It took three weeks for British doctors to ascertain that Litvinenko had been poisoned by polonium-210 by which time he was at death’s door.

Russia denied any involvement in the death of Litvinenko, which the British inquiry said had been hatched by the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

Former British defence minister Michael Fallon called for a stronger response if Russia was involved in the Skripal affair.

“We’ve got to respond more effectively than we did last time over Litvinenko. Our response then clearly wasn’t strong enough,” Fallon told Reuters.

“We need to deter Russia from believing they can get away with attacks like this on our streets if it’s proved.”

Litvinenko’s murder sent Britain’s ties with Russia to what was then a post-Cold War low. Relations suffered further from Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its military backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, said attempts to link Russia to the Skripal incident looked designed to worsen relations between London and Moscow.

Moscow says anti-Russian hysteria is being whipped up without any evidence to show its involvement in the Skripal case.

Russia holds a presidential election on March 18, which polls show Putin should comfortably win.

Skripal, who passed the identity of dozens of spies to the MI6 foreign intelligence agency, was given refuge in Britain after being exchanged in 2010 for Russian spies caught in the West as part of a Cold War-style spy swap at Vienna airport.

Russia’s FSB arrested Skripal in 2004 on suspicion of betraying dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence.

He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006 after a secret trial.

(Reuters/NAN)

  • WhatsApp
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket

Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate


TEXT AD: To advertise here . Call Willie +2347088095401...


JOIN THE CONVERSATION

  • Disqus (0)
premiumtimes



PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

Displaced by Boko Haram, hungry IDPs protest food shortage

Next Post

Senate joins Rep to pass NFIU bill

Agency Report

Agency Report

More News

U.S. President, Joe Biden (Photo Credit: CBC.ca)

Joe Biden takes office as America’s President, calls for end to ‘Uncivil War’

January 21, 2021
World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus at the coronavirus press conference in Geneva

WHO reports large shortage of coronavirus vaccines

January 20, 2021
Pfizer vaccines used to illustrate the story.

Japan to receive 144m doses of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine this year

January 20, 2021
Donald Trump [PHOTO CREDIT: @USATODAY]

Trump leaves White House for final time as president

January 20, 2021
Donald Trump [PHOTO CREDIT: ABC12]

Trump halts deportation of Venezuelan immigrants, imposes fresh sanctions on Maduro govt

January 20, 2021
COVID-19 vaccine [PHOTO CREDIT: The Economic Times]

India to send coronavirus vaccines to 6 neighbouring countries

January 20, 2021
Next Post
Nigerian Senate

Senate joins Rep to pass NFIU bill

Lagos State House of Assembly

Insertion of Alpha Beta in new Lagos land use law 'a mistake' - House of Assembly

Discussion about this post

Search

#EndSARS: Latest Updates




Polaris Bank


JAIZ Ad


NITDA Ad




Advertisement






netherland biz school Advert

Zenith Advert

Heritage Advert
ADVERTISEMENT

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps Address Nationwide
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • Opinion
  • PT Hausa
  • The Membership Club
  • Dubawa
    • Dubawa NG
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Store
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Our website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.