On Sunday the 4th of March a former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury, Britain. When both victims were transported to the hospital both were classed as critically ill, on top of this the three officers who were initially called to the scene of the incident also needed to be taken to hospital for treatment thereafter, with one of them temporarily being in critical condition too.
Although the damage doesn’t stop there, in fact, since the 4th another 17 people have required medical treatment due to the events that took place. As for what these events were specifically it appears that the cause of Skripal’s near-death was poison from a nerve agent, a highly contagious substance that often takes just a matter of seconds or minutes to kick in and often leads to death by asphyxiation or cardiac arrest.
The use of a nerve agent is the reason Russia has received numerous accusations that they were responsible for the attack as the resources and expertise required to produce and use a nerve agent would suggest military or intelligence agency involvement. Furthermore, to add to the suspicion, Putin himself when making a speech regarding the relationship between America and Russia said the words: “We are great power and no one likes competition,” further stating “Those who serve us with poison will eventually swallow it and poison themselves.”
As for the possible Russian motives Skripal was considered a double agent as he was a Russian military intelligence officer who in 2006 was convicted of giving identities of undercover Russian agents to the UK and was sentenced to 13 years for his crimes, although in 2010 he was released by Russia along with three other prisoners in exchange for 10 Russian spies after a deal was made with the FBI. However, it’s not just the previously mentioned individuals that have suffered, as his son and brother have both died within the last 2 years and multiple family members see the circumstances of their deaths as suspicious. On top of this, this hasn’t even been the first time an opposer of Vladimir Putin has mysteriously died – even by poison – in Britain, with cases appearing in 2006 where an individual was poisoned after drinking his tea, in 2010 when another individual died of a heart attack on a run with a rare plant toxin found in his system, in 2013 when a Russian businessman named Boris Berezovsky, who was publicly critical of Putin since his election in 2000, was found dead in his home with evidence suggesting it was due to suicide by hanging. However many of his family members refused to believe the hanging was self imposed and what made this more suspicious was that the victim himself believed and stated that he had been a target of earlier Russian murder plots long before he was later found dead. Furthermore, if that wasn’t scary enough there has been another 13 cases of individuals dying suspiciously within Britain since 2003, and they are just the ones mysterious enough to be reported.
As for the U.K’s response the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, said: “I say to governments around the world that no attempt to take Innocent Life on UK soil will go unsanctioned or unpunished”
At this time Russian officials have denied all involvement when it comes to the events surrounding Sergei Skripal, although the investigation is still on going so we will have to wait and see what is concluded.
