Sergei Viktorovich Skripal

Sergei Viktorovich Skripal ( Russian : Сергей Викторович Скрипаль ; born June 23, 1951 in Kaliningrad , Soviet Union ) is a former colonel of the Soviet, later Russian military intelligence service GRU , who exposed his own agents to the British foreign intelligence service MI6 as a defector . Around four years after leaving the secret service, he was exposed as an informant and arrested. After six years in prison, he came to the UK on an agent exchange in 2010.

On March 4, 2018, he and his daughter were found unconscious in the English city ​​of Salisbury and taken to a clinic with signs of poisoning .

The apparent use of an outlawed nerve agent sparked a serious diplomatic crisis between Great Britain and its allies, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other, which, according to Prime Minister Theresa May, was "very likely" to be held responsible for the "poison attack".

Life and agent work

Sergei Skripal was in Kaliningrad and Moscow to engineer officer of airborne troops trained. In 1979 he was one of the first Soviet soldiers to fight in Afghanistan . He married his childhood sweetheart from Kaliningrad, Lyudmila. Their son Alexander was born in 1974. In 1984 their daughter Julija was born. After his assignment in Afghanistan, Skripal graduated from the Military Diplomatic Academy in Moscow, which prepares future agents for covert work abroad. During his studies he was recruited by the GRU military intelligence service . First he spied in the 1980s and 1990s with diplomatic status in Europe. At the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union , he was Colonel of the GRU in Spain, where he was recruited by the British foreign intelligence service MI6 (code name Forthwith ). In the course of time he handed over the entire telephone and employee directory of the GRU to the British foreign intelligence service MI6 and thus exposed hundreds of agents.

In 1999 or 2000 Skripal left the GRU. He told friends that he was frustrated by the corruption in the intelligence community. He then worked for the former commander of the Soviet armed forces in Afghanistan Boris Gromov . During his employment with Gromov, he also taught at the Military Academy of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation .

In December 2004 he was exposed as a MI6 informant and arrested in Russia. He was accused of having betrayed the identities of Russian agents in Europe to MI6 from the 1990s onwards. The Russian prosecutor claimed that MI6 have for him 100,000 dollars paid. In 2006 a Moscow military court sentenced him to 13 years in a labor camp for “high treason in the form of espionage” in a trial that was largely closed to the media. The court withdrew all titles and awards from him. The Skripals family denied all allegations of treason against Sergei Skripal and described them as "fabricated". Skripal spent much of his sentence in a labor camp in Mordovia .

In July 2010, the then Russian President Dmitri Medvedev pardoned him . Skripal was exchanged with three other Western spies (including the nuclear physicist Igor Sutjagin ) for ten Russian spies arrested by the FBI (including Anna Vasiljewna Chapman ). Vladimir Putin threatened: “The traitors will bite the grass. Trust me. These people betrayed their friends, their brothers in arms. "

After his release and reunification with his wife, Skripal decided to settle in Salisbury and from then on lived there under his real name . Following the attack on Skripal, the British press suspected that he had recently used contacts with former British intelligence officials to work freelance for private security companies. In particular, he was connected to the security company Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd. by former MI6 Russia expert Christopher Steele , who became known through a dossier on Donald Trump's Russia connections . Steele denied that Skripal had contributed to this dossier.

Skripal's wife Lyudmila died of cancer ( endometrial carcinoma ) in Salisbury in 2012, and in 2016 Skripal's brother, who lived in Russia, died in a car accident. In 2017, Skripal's 43-year-old son died while on vacation with his girlfriend in St. Petersburg . Acute liver failure was given as the cause of death at that time ; the family questioned this diagnosis. His wife and son were buried in a cemetery in Salisbury near the scene of the crime; he was the scene of extensive investigations after the attack on Skripal and his daughter.

The news magazine Focus reported on Sept. 28, 2018, citing a high-ranking employees of the NATO counterintelligence Allied Command Counter Intelligence (ACCI) in Mons that Skripal worked until 2017 for four intelligence agencies of NATO countries. According to this, Skripal traveled to the Czech Republic in 2012 on the mediation of the British international service MI6 and accompanied by MI6 officials . In Prague , Skripal informed the local security authorities about active Russian spy networks. Skripal knew some Russian agents from his active service. In the summer of 2016, Skripal provided the Estonian secret service in Tallinn with information that led to the exposure of three active Russian secret agents. Skripal also worked with the Spanish secret service Centro Nacional de Inteligencia , which involved contacts between the Russian mafia on the Costa del Sol and influential politicians and officials in Moscow.

According to Luke Harding's quoted passages from Mark Urban’s book, Skripal did not feel that he was in direct danger, he was even a supporter of Vladimir Putin's policy “on many issues”.

poisoning

circumstances

On March 4, 2018, Sergei Skripal was found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury with his 33-year-old daughter Julija, who had come to visit from Russia the day before. Skripal had previously parked his car (1.40 p.m.), went to a pub with his daughter and then entered a pizzeria around 2.20 p.m. They left the restaurant an hour later, probably to go back to the car. At 4:20 p.m., passers-by discovered her unconscious on a park bench in a green area. The circumstances raised the suspicion of targeted poisoning with an initially unknown substance: In the Novaya Gazeta, Julia Latynina pointed out that a possibly planned murder attempt on Sergei Skripal alone could have been successful; the suspicion of poisoning only came to the fore so quickly for the treating doctors in the intensive care unit because not only an older man but also a much younger woman showed the same symptoms.

The Mill - the Salisbury pub where Skripal and his daughter left traces of the poison

Forensic forensic evidence tent above the bank where the Skripals were found

On March 7, British investigators announced that Skripal and his daughter had been poisoned with a nerve agent . The investigators had identified the exact warfare agent, but initially did not publish it, except for the information that it was an extremely rare poison. The use of a neurotoxin, usually only kept in military laboratories, was seen as an important indication of the possible involvement of the Russian state.

The deputy chief of police, Paul Mills, stated that no symptoms were found in 131 people who might have had contact with the poison and who therefore had a medical examination. An intensive care doctor from the treating clinic in Salisbury confirmed that no one except the Skripals and Nick Bailey needed treatment; British policeman Nick Bailey had been the first on the scene.

The British anti-terrorism unit Counter Terrorism Command took over the investigation into the "unusual circumstances" of the case. On March 9, 2018, 180 servicemen from the Army , Royal Marines and Royal Air Force were dispatched to Salisbury to support the investigation. These included experts in chemical and biological weapons . As part of the investigation, the graves of Skripal's son and wife in Salisbury Cemetery were cordoned off. By March 11, 200 pieces of evidence had been evaluated and more than 240 witnesses interviewed. Traces of the nerve agent were found in the local pub "The Mill" and on and around the table at the "Zizzi" restaurant, where Skripal and his daughter had been sitting two hours before they collapsed. As a precautionary measure, 500 visitors to the restaurant and pub were asked to wash their clothes and items such as glasses, bags, mobile phones and jewelry. The Ministry of Health expressed concerns that prolonged exposure to the substance (for weeks and months) could cause health problems; However, there is no reason to panic.

The nerve agent used was identified at the Porton Down research facility . The substance is a military-specific neurotoxin of the Novitschok series. Prime Minister Theresa May consulted with the National Security Council on the case and announced on March 12 in the House of Commons that Russia was “most likely” responsible for the poison attack on Skripal and his daughter. Either it is a direct attack by the Russian state against Great Britain, or the Russian government has lost control of its nerve agent, said the Prime Minister. The chemists of the British military laboratory could not prove whether the poison used was actually manufactured in Russia, but the assessment was based on intelligence sources and an intercepted message to Russia after the attack.

According to Prime Minister May, over 130 people in Salisbury were potentially exposed to the neurotoxin. In total, more than 50 people were examined in hospitals. Police officer Nick Bailey was released from the hospital after three weeks but said his life would never be the same after exposure to the neurotoxin.

At the end of March, the British investigative authorities announced that the poisoning probably took place at Skripal's house, as the highest concentration of poison was measured at his front door. According to Scotland Yard's assessment, the poison could possibly have been applied to the door handle as a sticky substance and thus got onto the hands of the victims, from where the poison was carried to the places later visited.

On March 29, 2018, UK authorities reported that Julija Skripal's medical condition had improved significantly. She is awake and you can talk to her. A week later, her father's condition also improved, who, according to doctors, was no longer in critical condition and responded well to treatment. On April 10, it was announced that Julija Skripal had been released from the hospital and taken to a safe place . Her father was released from the clinic on May 18, 2018.

On May 22nd, Julija Skripal made a statement: She thanked the hospital staff and stated, without giving any details, that the treatment was invasive, painful and depressing. In spite of the apparent weight loss and a hole in the throat, mockery and malice made the rounds of recovery in Russia, even among a political analyst. On May 28, 2018, it was announced that, according to Stephen Jukes, a specialist in the intensive care unit at Salisbury Hospital, the treating doctors had expected the death of the poisoned from the time they became aware that it was a nerve agent . In excellent teamwork with international support and the chemical weapons research center Porton Down , which is only 5 km away , new approaches to known treatments have been applied. The improvement in the condition of the patients was surprisingly quick, but there was no long-term prognosis because there was no experience.

In Russia, Julija Skripal's statement particularly emphasized the section that she wanted to return to her homeland “one day”. Sergei and Julija Skripal were in a secret location in Great Britain and were under the protection of the British state. Scotland Yard distributed a notice that Julija Skripal declined contact with the Russian embassy and with a cousin in Russia. The BBC spoke to the cousin, whose testimony had been used by Russian state propaganda as a basis for disseminating theories of coercion against Julija Skripal. It turned out that at the beginning of April she had entered into a contract with the production company of the show of the state television broadcaster Perwy kanal , in which she spoke, a contract that included both exclusive and paid participation in the popular talk show . After this release, the cousin simply denied having been interviewed by the BBC. To disclose all the circumstances, the NZZ wrote on September 13 that the Russian government had constantly asked the British to include Russia in the investigation. “In reality, Moscow refused to cooperate”.

Follow-up incident

On June 30th, an incident occurred in the town of Amesbury near Salisbury . A British couple, aged 44 and 45, came into contact with a substance identified as Novichok by the British military. First, the ambulance was called when the woman collapsed in her apartment with foam at her mouth, and the man soon followed. They had been in Salisbury the day before. Both were treated with life-threatening poisoning in the hospital, of which the woman died on July 8, 2018. It was initially unclear how they came into contact with the poison, but as a couple with drug problems, they were known to pick up a lot, including cigarette butts for consumption, or to search rubbish. The poison was eventually found in a small perfume bottle in the victims' home. The man said he found the bottle in the trash can of a charity shop on June 27, 2018. The authorities entrusted with the investigation have not yet been able to clarify the whereabouts of the bottle between the beginning of March and June 27 (as of September 26, 2019).

Toxin

The chemist Wil Mirsajanow , who had contributed to the development of the warfare agent and its unveiling, stated that there could be no remnants from Soviet times because they would have long since disintegrated. Based on personal experience, he expects the victims that they will never recover and die within a few years. He himself made the substance public precisely to prevent it from ever being used.

The German Federal Intelligence Service had smuggled a sample of the poison from Russia and had it analyzed more than 20 years earlier. The knowledge was passed on to the Western allies, and a journalist for the news magazine Der Spiegel speculated that these findings might fuel Russian conspiracy theories about the origin of the poison in the Skripal case. In the course of this development it became known that other NATO countries had already had detailed knowledge of the Novichok warfare agent since the mid-1990s. A journalist for the news magazine Der Spiegel therefore said that the existence of the BND sample in the 1990s contradicts Britain's claim that the warfare agent could only come from Russia. However, it was never claimed that Russia was the only country that Novichok could manufacture.

On April 3, 2018, Gary Aitkenhead, Chief Executive of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) in Porton Down stated: “We were able to identify it as Novichok and were able to determine that it was a military neurotoxin . However, we were unable to identify the exact source. We did make the scientific information available to the government, who then used a variety of other sources to summarize the conclusions they came to. ”The question of whether Porton Down Novichok was ever manufactured or stored left Aitkenhead uncommented. However, he rejected Russian allegations that the toxins could have come from his laboratory and instead emphasized "Under no circumstances could anything like this have come from us or left the four walls of our facility."

On April 8th, reports appeared with reference to security and secret service circles, according to which a specially developed formulation of the Novichok group, effective only after four hours , had been used to give the perpetrators enough time to escape. This was attached as an odorless gel to the doorknob that Sergej and Julija Skripal touched when they returned from visiting the cemetery at around 11.30 a.m. Skripal had previously been observed for two weeks to determine the appropriate time for the attack. In addition, on March 3 and 4, a listening post at the British military bases in Cyprus intercepted messages to an “official” in Moscow with the content “the package was delivered” and “the two had a successful exit”. This, along with other findings, led Prime Minister May to label Russia on March 12th as "most likely responsible" for the attack.

Suspects

On September 5, 2018, the British judiciary brought charges against two Russian citizens of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder on three counts, and violation of the Chemical Weapons Act. The Russians had entered the country with real Russian identity documents with false names. According to media reports, the passport numbers were consecutive or similar and the names Alexander Petrow and Ruslan Boschirow were entered, according to a report in the British daily Telegraph , the real names of the Russians were known to the British authorities. A European arrest warrant was obtained for both of them. The British authorities said the two men were members of the Russian military intelligence service GRU . They arrived in Gatwick on March 2 by scheduled flight from Moscow , explored the area around Salisbury on March 3 and allegedly carried out the poison attack on March 4. Their movements were repeatedly filmed by video surveillance cameras. They later took the train to Heathrow and left England on March 4 at 10:30 p.m. with a flight to Moscow. They had booked two return flights, one more the following morning. Chemical evidence of Novichok was found in her hotel room in London.

On September 12, President Putin said, surprisingly personally, that the two “private individuals” known to the authorities should explain themselves. On the following September 13th, during a 25-minute interview with editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan of the state foreign broadcaster RT , the accused declared that they had traveled to England to visit Salisbury Cathedral , Old Sarum and Stonehenge , that is, as tourists. The visas were, however, business visas, although neither of the two had business ties to England. After the entry became known, a mole in the very restrictive British visa procedure was suspected, with an employee of an IT contractor from the FSB allegedly being blackmailed through arbitrary arrests of his pregnant wife.

The alleged suspects assured that they had not carried poison with them or committed a crime. They didn't know who Skripal was or where he lived. You are in the fitness industry. The seemingly awkward and constructed appearance of the two alleged tourists on state television did not convince many critical Russian viewers either. For example, a former KGB officer was quoted by name in a report by the BBC as saying that, in his opinion, “it would have been clearly better for the two of them if they had kept their mouths shut”. After the interview, he was now convinced that they were spies. He couldn't understand how the wrong decision came about to let the two appear on television. This suggests a loss of sense of reality in leadership. Not only were jokes to be read about the event on Russian social media, even Kremlin-loyal comedians made fun of it on state television.

A third suspect had apparently also been known to the British authorities, the reasons why the man traveling alone on the same days (with the name Sergei Fedotov in his passport) had not been named with the other two remained unknown for the time being. On February 26, 2019, Deutschlandfunk reported on further research results from Bellingcat and other media regarding the identity of a third suspect named Denis Sergejew.

Identification of the alleged perpetrators by name

The Bellingcat research team , together with researchers from the Russian Internet newspaper The Insider , found out that the passports were issued in 2009. Before that, the men could not be found in any passport database, which was unusual. A document from the Russian Interior Ministry, which documented the issuance of a new passport in the name of "Alexander Evgenevich P.", contained the photo and some personal data of one of the suspects in the Skripal case. On the document there is also the stamp "сведений не давать 195-79-66" (German: "No information 195-79-66") and the handwritten addition "с.с. совершенно секретно "(Eng." top secret "). This is a typical note in the passports of secret service employees. According to Novaya Gazeta is in the sequence of digits 195-79-66 for a phone number from the central office 195 in Moscow's northern administrative district where the Russian is Ministry of Defense and the headquarters of the military intelligence GRU on the khodynka field is. Journalists from The Independent , ABC News and The Observer then called the number and reached the Russian Defense Ministry. On the following day the Russian research collective Проект published the documents of the other suspect, Ruslan Boschirov. The document contains the same anomalies and comments as the files of Alexander Petrov.

On September 26, Bellingcat identified one of the suspects and released his alleged real name and details of his intelligence career. According to this, “Ruslan Boschirow” is the GRU secret agent Anatoli Vladimirovich Tschepiga, born in 1979 near the Russian-Chinese border in the Amur region . Two alleged insiders from European security circles with knowledge of the Skripal investigation confirmed to the Reuters news agency that the information was correct. At the age of 18 Tschepiga switched to an elite school for marines and Spetsnaz officers, which he graduated with honors in 2001. He then served in the 14th Spetsnaz Brigade in Khabarovsk . He received his alter ego "Ruslan Boschirow" between 2003 and 2010 and under this name he was transferred to Moscow. For his work in the Russian-Ukrainian war , he was awarded the highest honor in the country in December 2014, the hero of the Russian Federation , "very likely", President Putin Tschepiga knows, because he usually presents such awards personally. The award was announced on the website of his former military school, but no details of his mission were given except for the remark "by decree of the Russian President". Russian journalists, and later reporters for the BBC and the Washington Post , then interviewed the residents of the village of Berezovka in Amur Oblast, where the Tschepiga family lived. The interviewees recognized Antoli Tschepiga externally and by his voice. It was known in the village that Tschepiga was on a secret mission in war zones.

On October 8, 2018, Bellingcat announced on its website that the second suspect had also been identified by name. Accordingly, it was the military doctor Alexander Evgenevich Mishkin, who is an employee of the GRU. Mishkin was born in 1979 in the town of Loyga in Arkhangelsk Oblast and was recruited by the GRU in Moscow in 2010 while studying medicine . There he received his undercover identity 'Alexander Petrov'. Under this new identity, he had traveled many times to Ukraine and the self-proclaimed Republic of Transnistria between 2011 and 2018. He was also in Kiev during the Euromaidan in December 2013 . The NZZ mentioned statements from experts who considered the presence of a doctor like Mischkin to be essential for such an action, on the one hand to ensure the effective use of the chemical and on the other hand to ensure the safety of the users.

According to further research by Tamedia , The Insider and Bellingcat , Egor Gordienko, who was involved in the two attacks in Bulgaria on the arms dealer Emilian Gebrew in 2015, was also involved. Denis Segeew was therefore the name of the fourth agent identified by name, who led the operation from London under the name Sergei Fedotow. The three agents who traveled to Great Britain to carry out the attack had traveled to Geneva several times before the attack, where Gordienko had been accredited as a diplomat at the WTO in Geneva since 2017 . Due to the accreditation, he had brought his family with him until 2020 and was registered for the Escalade de Genève in December 2018, but did not return to Switzerland after a trip to Moscow in October, shortly after the first Bellingcat revelations. The family followed him a little later.

Reactions in the UK and Russia

Russia

Russian media reported on the incident without comment on the evening of March 5, 2018, referring to the BBC's report at the time. From March 7, 2018, there were a large number of comments. The state-controlled media flatly denied that Russia was involved in the incident and labeled the whole fuss as anti-Russian hysteria. A spokesman for the pro-government Perwy Canal nevertheless issued a hardly concealed warning to “traitors” with direct mockery of the victim; he did not go into the also affected daughter of Skripal. The case should be a warning to all those pursuing a similar career as traitors; few of these traitors would have reached old age in the past. Furthermore, such traitors should better not choose Britain as their focus of life. Something is strange there. Perhaps the climate, but at least many strange incidents with serious consequences have occurred in recent years, a statement made by the Russian ambassador to Ireland , Yuri Filatov, in a very similar way.

The British ambassador in Moscow was summoned. It was explained to him that Russia would not comply with Prime Minister May's request for a satisfactory explanation of the attack.

The events coincided with the run-up to the presidential election in Russia . On March 13, 2018, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that the allegations against Russia were "nonsense" and that Russia was "innocent" in the case. Russia is only willing to cooperate if the British government grants Russia access to the neurotoxin samples in accordance with the rules of the chemical weapons convention, which Lavrov said the government refused to do.

Meanwhile, Russia and Russian state media spread a number of conspiracy theories . The British government was behind the attack as a distraction from Brexit and the poisoning was a NATO conspiracy against Russia. In addition to Great Britain, Russia also brought Sweden , Slovakia , the Czech Republic , Ukraine , the West in general, non-state actors, Putin critic Bill Browder and the United States into play as possible responsible parties, whereby the theories contradicted each other. The disinformation campaign followed a similar pattern to the coverage of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 , according to an analysis by the Canadian news channel CBC News .

In a speech on his re-election as Russian President on March 18, Vladimir Putin described the accusation that Russia had poisoned an ex-agent in Great Britain as “nonsense”, later as “irrelevant” and offered Russia's cooperation in the investigation. On the same day, his campaign spokesman, Andrei Kondrashov, ironically thanked the British government: it had helped to gather voters at the center of power and mobilize them for Putin.

On March 31, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in London sent the British Foreign Office a note with a list of questions for the British side regarding the "case of the Skripals". For example, they wanted to know why the nerve agent in the Skripal case, in which the poison was transmitted hours before the victims collapsed according to reports from the police, did not act immediately as usual, and how the British government was able to identify the nerve agent as Novichok so quickly. The Russian side accused the British government of making accusations and taking drastic diplomatic measures, even though the British police say they still need months to investigate. They also demand access to Julija Skripal, who can be contacted again and is a Russian citizen.

On the same day, the Russian Embassy in Paris sent a note with a list of questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, on April 1, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the OPCW sent a list of questions to the Organization's Technical Secretariat.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vasily Nebensja called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York .

At the beginning of October 2018, Putin publicly described Skripal as a traitor and a "bastard".

Great Britain

In the United Kingdom, memories of the writer Georgi Markov , who was poisoned in an umbrella attack in London in 1978, and the case of the defector Alexander Litvinenko, who was also poisoned in London in 2006 by FSB agents , quickly came to mind .

On March 6, 2018, gave the House -Abgeordnete Yvette Cooper ( Labor ) a submission to the British Home Secretary Amber Rudd one in which the government was asked to follow-up of 14 deaths of Russian emigrants in the past in the UK. The British police had classified the deaths as unsuspicious, but US authorities had rated them as potentially suspicious.

On March 12, 2018, British Prime Minister Theresa May declared in Parliament in London that Russia was "most likely" responsible for the attack on Skripal; this resulted from an analysis of the poison used. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office summoned the Russian ambassador about the poison attack to make a statement to the OPCW. If Russia does not give a “credible answer” by the end of March 13 - according to her ultimatum - the United Kingdom will view the attack as an unlawful use of force (see general ban on force ) by Moscow, May said.

On March 14, the British government ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats (see Persona non grata ). Prime Minister May said Russia had shown "total contempt" for the investigation and had failed to provide an explanation for the undeclared chemical weapons program, which violates international law. On March 17, the Russian government expelled 23 British diplomats.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on March 19 that the Russian denials were increasingly absurd. It is the "classic Russian strategy of hiding the needle of truth in a haystack of lies and disguise". Russia had initially said that it Nowitschok have not been established. It was later said that Russia produced the neurotoxin but destroyed the stocks. Even later, Russia stated that some holdings may have ended up in the hands of European countries and America.

At the end of March 2018, the British Defense Minister Gavin Williamson once again tightened the tone against Russia, blaming Putin personally for the attack and calling his behavior "malicious". Williamson sees a new era of warfare in Russia's behavior, also making the link to cyberattacks of recent years that could be traced back to Russian sources. The aim of the Russian government under Putin is to systematically undermine other countries.

In a letter to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on April 13, 2018, British National Security Advisor Mark Sedwill summed up Britain's belief that Russia was behind the attack. He made a connection to other attacks like that of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, for which he most likely blamed the Russian secret service FSB and President Putin. Sedwill referred to intelligence information that the e-mail traffic between Julija Skripal and her father had been monitored by the Russian military intelligence service GRU since 2013 and that the Russian secret services had had a program since the 2000s to use chemical warfare agents for attacks, including on prepared door handles.

Reaction of the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic, like Sweden, sharply rejected the Russian allegations made in mid-March.

On May 3, 2018, Czech President Milos Zeman, known to be pro-Russia, said in the evening via TV channel Barrandov that, according to a new report by the Czech military intelligence service in November 2017, an experiment with the Novichok substance A in a military research institute in Brno ( VTÚO Brno now VVÚ ) -230 would have taken place. However, according to Zeman, the poisoning of Skripal and daughter was probably the substance A-234.

The opposition accused Zeman of serving the Kremlin and its "lying propaganda" with his statement, which was "calculated" according to the NZZ, in which only the part of Zeman's statements useful to Russia was gratefully received. It had been known since March that experiments approved by the OPCW had taken place in the Czech Republic. However, there was never any evidence of where the Novichok used in Salisbury might have come from.

Further international reactions

Expulsions of Russian diplomats as a result of the poison attack

country	number
Albania	2
Australia	2
Belgium	1
Denmark	2
Estonia	1
Finland	1
France	4th
Germany	4th
Ireland	1
Italy	2
Canada	4th
Croatia	1
Latvia	2
Lithuania	3
Macedonia	1
Moldova	3
Montenegro	1
Netherlands	2
Norway	1
Poland	4th
Romania	1
Sweden	1
Spain	2
Czech Republic	3
Ukraine	13
Hungary	1
United Kingdom	23
United States	60

In a joint statement on March 15, 2018, the governments of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom condemned "the first offensive use of nerve agents in Europe since World War II", calling it an attack on Britain's sovereignty. There is "no other alternative credible explanation" on Russia's responsibility for this attack.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg saw the attack on Skripal on the same day “against the background of the pattern of ruthless Russian behavior for many years”. This ranged from the annexation of Crimea to support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine and the Russian military presence in Moldova ( Transnistria ) and Georgia ( South Ossetia and Abkhazia ) to interference in Montenegro and other states in the Western Balkans. In addition, there is a Russian armament from Northern Europe to the Middle East . Russia is also dangerously blurring the lines between conventional and nuclear warfare in its military doctrine .

On March 19, the EU foreign ministers sharply condemned the poison attack. They take the British assumption seriously that Russia is behind the attack.

On March 22, 2018, EU Council President Donald Tusk said after discussions at the EU summit in Brussels that they agreed with the British government that Russia was most likely to be responsible for the attack in Salisbury.

On March 23, 2018, the EU ordered its Ambassador Markus Ederer from Moscow back to Brussels for consultations. On 26 March 2018, was press secretary of the Foreign Ministry of the United States , Heather Nauert known that the United States will total expel 60 Russian officials, including due to the violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention . 48 of them had previously been assigned to a bilateral mission with the United States, and a further 12 were secret agents of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations. In addition, the government of the Russian Federation has been asked to close the Russian Consulate General in Seattle ( Washington ) by April 2, 2018. A total of 27 countries worldwide expelled Russian diplomats out of solidarity with Great Britain, including 18 EU countries.

NATO expelled seven members of the Russian mission to NATO.

The US government announced further sanctions against Russia in August 2019. One will oppose the extension of any loans as well as the financial and technical support for Russia by international financial institutions. Russia's access to business with US banks will also be restricted. President Donald Trump was moved to take the move "by a letter from both parties signed by the heads of the House Foreign Affairs Committee," Democrat Eliot Engel and Republican Michael McCaul . They urged "Russia to be held accountable for its blatant use of chemical weapons in Europe". The Russia sanctions were seen as one of the few issues where Republicans and Democrats can still come to terms with each other.

Germany

At the end of March, Germany expelled four Russian diplomats as part of the Skripal affair and, according to Foreign Minister Heiko Maas , expressed solidarity with Great Britain. According to Maas, facts and clues would point to Russia. The Foreign Office criticized the lack of support from Russia to clarify the affair and also referred to recent hacker attacks on the IT infrastructure of the German Bundestag, for which Russian sources were held responsible.

On June 6, 2018, the German government confirmed to the parliamentary control body of the Bundestag that it did not have any evidence that Russia was responsible. So far only the information has come from London that the poison used was Novichok. In addition, there is no evidence that the poison used comes from Russia. The federal government also stated that the German secret services would not have been able to gain any knowledge of their own that Russia could be responsible.

Austria

Austria supported the measure to withdraw the EU ambassador from Russia, but did not participate with its own deportations.

Switzerland

Switzerland condemned the attack “strongly”.

Consultations of the OPCW

The OPCW alone determines the use and possibly the origin of toxins, perpetrators and authors are not determined. On April 4, 2018, the first special meeting of the OPCW Executive Council took place in The Hague at the request of Russia and in camera. OPCW experts had taken samples in Salisbury and had blood samples from the victims; these were analyzed in two laboratories that were not designated according to the principle . Russia rejected the British allegations that it was responsible for the poison attack as unfounded and declared that it wanted to be involved in the investigation. Russia found support for this rejected request from China , Iran and some African states (6 states in favor, 15 against, 17 abstentions, 3 not participating). Russia then asked 14 questions that were left untreated. The EU representative, Bulgarian Ambassador Krassimir Kostov, reiterated the point of view at the meeting that the Russian Federation was most likely responsible for the attacks, that there was no other plausible explanation and that it was regrettable that Russia did not respond positively to Britain's original request have to provide information.

The OPCW took samples on March 16 in Salisbury and handed over blood samples from the victims to two independent laboratories whose identities were kept secret. Although the OPCW was aware of this practice of not naming the laboratories of the investigation, Russia asked the General Secretariat of the OPCW to name the laboratories. The General Secretariat declined to be named. On April 12, the OPCW confirmed the British findings about the neurotoxin used in an initial statement without mentioning the name Novitschok. They also confirmed the high degree of purity with almost no impurities.

On September 4, 2018, the OPCW confirmed that British citizens Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess had been poisoned by Novichok. However, it is not possible to verify whether it was produced in the same batch , since the substance was exposed to the environment during storage. The woman had put the supposed perfume on her wrists .

Russian disinformation campaign on the OPCW

On April 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that he was aware of a paper from the Swiss Spiez laboratory , claiming it was one of the laboratories that examined samples from Salisbury. He accused the OPCW of manipulation on the grounds that the chemical warfare agent BZ , developed in the West, had been found in the samples .

One of the practices of the OPCW, however, is not to name the commissioned laboratories and, moreover, to leave them in the dark as to which of several samples submitted is actually the right one. It is part of the way the OPCW works to send deviating blank samples to the respective laboratory at the same time as the actual sample in order to ensure that work is being carried out without errors. Contrary to Lavrow's statement, a laboratory is basically not in a position to make a statement about the actual sample. Accordingly, the only comment from Spiez was that only the OPCW itself could comment on Lavrov's statement. On April 18, the Swiss representative at the OPCW called the Russian statements "absolutely unacceptable". Russia is damaging the credibility of the OPCW. At the meeting of the Executive Council on April 18, it was announced that a precursor to the BZ mentioned by Lavrov had been part of a negative control sample. The declaration again avoided naming a laboratory.

The head of the chemistry department in the Spiez Laboratory, Stefan Mogl, had already declared in an interview on April 5 that he had no doubts about the British research results, as the standards enforced by the OPCW were extremely rigid.

The German Foreign Office published a statement on April 20, 2018 that it was a targeted false report of "state-controlled Russian foreign media".

Alleged espionage against the Spiez laboratory

On September 13, 2018, the Tages-Anzeiger and the NRC Handelsblad reported that two Russian secret service employees had been arrested in The Hague in spring 2018. They would have been on their way to the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland and were suspected of wanting to scout out the Spiez laboratory. The laboratory is one of the reference laboratories of the OPCW and carried out investigations in the case of Skripal. The two arrested people carried equipment with them to break into computer networks. The Russians have been returned to Russia. The Federal Intelligence Service (NDB) confirmed that the Swiss authorities were "aware of the case of the Russian spies discovered in The Hague and then removed". Together with Dutch and British partners, the FIS contributed to the "prevention of illegal actions against a critical Swiss infrastructure". The head of communications at Spiez Laboratory also reported that the laboratory was the target of cyberattacks in connection with the samples from Salisbury .

Skripal's whereabouts

That Sergei Skripal survived the poison attack cannot be proven due to the fact that he and his daughter were housed in a secret, secure location. A phone call published by Skripal's niece Viktoria Skripal in May 2019 seemed to indicate that Sergei Skripal was still alive. The role of Viktoria Skripal is unclear, she doubts, without further knowledge of the matter, the British information on the course of events and openly supports Moscow's version. A good two years after the poisoning, a British press report reported that the Skripals were seeking a stay outside of Great Britain.

Similar cases

• Nikolai Glushkov , a Russian exile who was found dead in London on March 12, 2018
• There are parallels to the attack on Emilian Gebrew in Bulgaria in April 2015.

Sources / literature

• OPWC report
• Mark Urban: The Skripal Files: The Life and Near Death of a Russian Spy , Pan Macmillan, 2018, ISBN 978-1-5290-0690-2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A poison attack that arouses fears. Die Zeit, March 15, 2018.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Sergei Skripal - the Russian former spy at the center of poison mystery. In: BBC , March 10, 2018.
3. ^ Christian Esch, Matthias Gebauer, Julia Amalia Heyer, Peter Müller, Valentyna Polunina, Tobias Rapp, Mathieu von Rohr, Marcel Rosenbach, Christoph Scheuermann, Jörg Schindler, Fidelius Schmid, Christoph Schult: The poison attack . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 2018, p. 10–19 ( online - March 17, 2018 , here p. 13.).
4. ↑ ^{a b} Who is former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal? In: BBC News. March 6, 2018, accessed March 6, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Sergei Skripal: Who is the former Russian colonel? In: BBC News. March 5, 2018, accessed March 6, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Great Britain: Russian ex-spy for poisoning in hospital . In: The time . March 5, 2018, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed March 6, 2018]).
7. ↑ Patrick Greenfield, Marc Bennetts: Who is Sergei Skripal, the ex-spy exposed to 'unknown substance'? In: theguardian.com. March 5, 2018, accessed March 6, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Livia Gerster: Spectacular Murder Cases. FAZ, March 19, 2018.
9. ^ Video re-emerges of Putin threat that 'traitors will kick the bucket' independent.co.uk. Retrieved October 3, 2018
10. ↑ Investigators find neurotoxin in pub and pizzeria. In: Zeit Online . March 11, 2018, accessed March 14, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Russian ex-agent was victim of nerve poison. In: Göttinger Tageblatt . March 7, 2018, accessed March 14, 2018 . 
12. ↑ Kim Segupta, Lizzie Dearden: Sergei Skripal: Former double agent may have been poisoned with nerve agent over 'freelance' spying, sources say. The Independent, March 8, 2018.
13. ↑ Poisoned double agent Skripal intelligence agencies worked until 2017 for four . In: Focus, September 28, 2018
14. ↑ Report: Sergej Skripal delivered agents to the knife. In: Deutsche Welle, September 28, 2018
15. ↑ Люк Хардинг: Неизвестный Скрипаль. Отравленный шпион отказывался верить, что спецслужбы России хотят его убить и был "бесстыдным русским националистом". (No longer available online.) In: Nowaja Gaseta. October 4, 2018, archived from the original on October 15, 2018 ; Retrieved May 13, 2019 (Russian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
16. ↑ Ex-spy apparently victim of nerve poison: investigations into attempted murder. orf.at, March 7, 2018, accessed March 8, 2018.
17. ↑ Mysterious poisoning: attack on ex-spy? In: Frankfurter Rundschau . March 6, 2018, accessed March 9, 2018 . 
18. ↑ Russian ex-spy poisoned in Great Britain? In: tagesschau.de. Retrieved March 6, 2018 . 
19. ↑ Юлия Латынина: Расчет на тихую ликвидацию. (No longer available online.) In: Nowaja Gaseta. September 5, 2018, archived from the original on September 5, 2018 ; Retrieved May 13, 2019 (Russian). 
20. ↑ FAZ.net: Russian ex double agent attacked with nerve poison
21. ↑ Investigators detect neurotoxins in Russian ex-agents. In: The time . March 7, 2018, accessed March 8, 2018 . 
22. ^ Spy mystery: Rare poison may be traced to single lab. In: The Times , March 9, 2018.
23. ↑ Complex and dangerous, nerve agents are rarely used for assassinations. In: Reuters , March 8, 2018.
24. ↑ Russian spy poisoning inquiry widens after medics treat 21 people. In: The Guardian , March 9, 2018.
25. ↑ Russia: Salisbury poison fears allayed by doctor In: The Times , March 16, 2018.
26. ↑ Russian spy attack: police officer left ill named as DS Nick Bailey. In: The Guardian , March 8, 2018.
27. ^ Counter-terrorism police take over Sergei Skripal 'poison' case. In: The Guardian , March 6, 2018.
28. ↑ Russian spy: Military deployed after poisoning. BBC News, March 9, 2018, accessed March 9, 2018 . 
29. ↑ Russian spy: Traces of nerve agent found at Zizzi. In: BBC , March 11, 2018.
30. ↑ Russian spy: Salisbury diners told to wash possessions. In: BBC , March 11, 2018.
31. ↑ ^{a b} Sergej Skripal: Great Britain gives Russia an ultimatum. In: Zeit Online , March 12, 2018.
32. ↑ Russia highly likely to be behind poisoning of spy, says Theresa May. In: The Guardian , March 12, 2018.
33. ↑ ^{a b} Russian spy: Highly likely Moscow behind attack, says Theresa May. In: BBC , March 12, 2018.
34. ↑ APA / Der Standard : Skripal case: British laboratory could not clarify Novitschok origin. 3rd April 2018.
35. ^ ^{A b} John Simpson, Deborah Haynes: Russian message intercepted after Skripal attack. The Times, April 9, 2018, accessed April 8, 2018.
36. ↑ Pippa Crerar: More than 130 people could have been exposed to novichok, PM says. In: The Guardian. March 26, 2018, accessed March 27, 2018 . 
37. ↑ ^{a b} The nerve poison at the front door. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. March 29, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2018 . 
38. ↑ Russian spy: Yulia Skripal 'conscious and talking'. BBC News, March 29, 2018, accessed March 29, 2018 . 
39. ↑ Sergej Skripal is doing much better. The poisoned ex-double agent Sergei Skripal is no longer in critical condition. The allegations against Russia are getting louder. The "Times" reports on a secret program to develop the neurotoxin Novichok. (No longer available online.) April 6, 2018, archived from the original on April 7, 2018 ; accessed on May 13, 2019 . 
40. ↑ Julia Skripal released from the clinic. Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 10, 2018.
41. ↑ Great Britain: Poisoned ex-double agent Skripal released from clinic. In: Spiegel Online . May 18, 2018, accessed May 18, 2018 . 
42. ↑ Julija, the daughter of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal, gave the first interview. Echo Moskvy, May 23, 2018.
43. ↑ Russians mock poison victims with before and after photos , Krone.at, May 29, 2018.
44. ↑ Doctors expected the Skripals to die orf.at, May 29, 2018, accessed May 29, 2018. - With reference to a BBC contribution.
45. ↑ Julia Skripal answers: Guessing the first video message. The poisoned Julia Skripal spoke for the first time in a video. She speaks of her recovery and a possible return to Russia. Your public message leaves some questions unanswered. May 24, 2018, accessed June 23, 2018 . 
46. ↑ Yulia Skripal: 'We are so lucky to have survived assassination attempt'. The Guardian, May 23, 2018.
47. ↑ Victoria Skripal got a job in the company associated with the Perwy Canal. Russian service of the BBC, July 10, 2018.
48. ↑ Ирина Петровская: На эфир как на работу. Виктория Скрипаль призналась, что получает за эксклюзив зарплату на Первом канале. (No longer available online.) In: Nowaja Gaseta. July 12, 2018, archived from the original on July 12, 2018 ; Retrieved May 13, 2019 (Russian). 
49. ↑ The Kremlin knows the suspects in the Skripal case. NZZ , September 13, p. 5.
50. ^ British woman dies after Novichok poisoning. In: Spiegel.online. July 8, 2018, accessed July 5, 2018 . 
51. ↑ Amesbury poisoning latest: People in Salisbury should avoid picking up discarded objects after latest nerve agent incident, says Public Health England. The Independent, July 5, 2018.
52. ↑ Novichok fear sends chill through Salisbury's homeless. The Guardian, July 8, 2018.
53. ↑ Amesbury Novichok incident: Nerve agent found in perfume bottle, says victim's brother. The Independent, July 16, 2018.
54. ↑ "Salisbury attack: Novichok bottle what not recovered for more than three months, police say" independent.co.uk from September 26, 2019
55. ↑ «Надо было навсегда лишить Россию ее секрета» (translation: "It was necessary to permanently rob Russia of its secret"). In: Novaya Gazeta , March 15, 2018.
56. ^ BND procured a sample of Novitschok neurotoxin. Der Spiegel online from May 16, 2018.
57. ↑ Der Spiegel No. 21 of May 19, 2018, p. 22.
58. ↑ ^{a b c d} The Czech President confirms the production of Novichok outside Russia - no more and no less. NZZ, May 4, 2018; “Nevertheless, Zeman, who is as well known for his pro-Russian attitude as his unpredictability, acted in a calculated manner with his interview - and hardly from the noble motives that he put forward”. (Title of the print edition: "The President's Calculus", p. 3 on May 5, 2018)
59. ↑ Paul Kelso: Porton Down experts unable to identify 'precise source' of novichok that poisoned spy. sky.com , April 3, 2018, accessed April 3, 2018 .  
60. ↑ Rob Hastings: "Boutique" form of Novichok used in Skripal spy attack allowed Russian agents time to escape , inews.co.uk of April 8, 2018, accessed April 10, 2018.
61. ↑ Обеспечено государством. Что означают «подлинные паспорта» россиян, заподозренных в отравлении Скрипалей. (No longer available online.) In: Nowaja Gaseta. September 7, 2018, archived from the original on September 7, 2018 ; Retrieved May 13, 2019 (Russian, Secured by the State.). 
62. ↑ ^{a b} The Kremlin knows the suspects in the Skripal case. And Putin has a touching recommendation to both of them. NZZ, September 12, 2018; according to NZZ an "unexpected volte"
63. ↑ Что «Фонтанке» известно о подозреваемых в отравлении Скрипалей , Fontanka , September 5, 2018.
64. ↑ The Telegraph: подозреваемые в отравлении Скрипалей россияне при получении виз представилиси бизнесменами. (No longer available online.) In: Nowaja Gaseta. September 7, 2018, archived from the original on September 7, 2018 ; Retrieved May 13, 2019 (Russian, The Telegraph: Suspects in the poisoning of the Skripals introduced themselves as businessmen while obtaining visas.). 
65. ^ Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter; Hayley Dixon; Izzy Lyons; Daria Litvinova; Alec Luhn, Moscow: Russian hitmen 'posed as businessmen' to gain entry into the UK. September 6, 2018.
66. ^ Vikram Dodd: Salisbury poisonings: police name two Russian suspects. Guardian September 5, 2018.
67. ↑ ^{a b} «Солсберецкий» собор с часовым механизмом. И куда теперь податься Петрову с Бошировым? Только в Госдуму, очевидно. (No longer available online.) In: Nowaja Gaseta . September 13, 2018, archived from the original on September 13, 2018 ; Retrieved on May 13, 2019 (Russian, "saving" cathedral with a clockwork.). 
68. ↑ Russian spy: What happened to Sergei and Yulia Skripal? BBC, September 6, 2018.
69. ↑ Many leads lead to military intelligence , NZZ , September 28, 2018, page 3
70. ↑ Salisbury Novichok attack: The most implausible claims made by Russian men accused of attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal , The Independent, 13 September 2018
71. ↑ What about inside man? Russia's secret service 'influenced British embassy into giving Skripal assassins business visas so they could travel to Salisbury and back undetected' , dailymail, 27 September 2018
72. ↑ Spies Without Borders How Russian Special Services Sent "A Few Of Their People" To Great Britain , Echo Moscow, November 16, 2018 /
73. ↑ Christina Hebel: Russian confusion games. In: spiegel.de. Der Spiegel, September 13, 2018, accessed on September 14, 2018 . 
74. ^ Sarah Rainsford: Mission implausible: Russians mock improbable spy duo. BBC News, September 21, 2018, accessed September 30, 2018 . 
75. ↑ The Russian power machine is reaching the limits of insolence , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, October 9, 2018
76. ↑ Third agent identified in the Skripal case , NZZ, October 12, 2018, title of the print edition
77. ↑ Thielko Grieß: Possible third assassin in the Skripal case identified. Various media have identified a third suspect in the Skripal case. A man named Denis Sergejew is believed to have been involved in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter almost a year ago. And that wasn't his first job. (No longer available online.) In: Deutschlandfunk. February 26, 2019, archived from the original on February 28, 2019 ; accessed on February 26, 2019 . 
78. ↑ Suspects traveled with suspicious passports . In: Die Zeit , September 16, 2018.
79. ↑ Bellingcat показал заявку на паспорт Петрова из Солсбери. На ней есть пометка от спецслужб (The Bellingcat report in Russian) ( Eng . "Bellingcat showed Petrov's passport application from Salisbury. It contains a note from the secret services"). In: BBC , September 14, 2018.
80. ↑ Skripal Poisoning Suspect's Passport Data Shows Link to Security Services. Bellingcat , September 14, 2018. (The Bellingcat Report in English)
81. ↑ "Новая газета" обнаружила доказательства возможной связи человека, обвиняемого в отравлении Скрипалей, с Минобороны России (dt. "" Novaya Gazeta "discovered evidence of a possible link between the suspect in the poisoning case Skripal and the Russian Ministry of Defense"). In: Novaya Gazeta , September 14, 2018.
82. ↑ Журналисты дозвонились до Минобороны по телефону из анкеты Петрова в ФМС ( Eng . "Journalists reached the Ministry of Defense under the number from Petrov's document from the FMS"). In: RBK , September 15, 2018.
83. ^ Documents reveal Salisbury poisoning suspects' Russian defense ministry ties . In: The Guardian , September 15, 2018.
84. ↑ Появился новый документ с данными о паспорте Руслана Боширова . In: Echo Moskwy , September 15, 2018.
85. ↑ Russian colonel is said to have committed a poison attack zeit.de. September 27, 2018.
86. ↑ Skripal Suspect Boshirov Identified as GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga. Bellingcat, September 26, 2018, accessed September 26, 2018 . Skripal 'hitman' unmasked as GRU colonel awarded Russia's highest military honor by Vladimir Putin . In: The Telegraph , September 26, 2018. Suspect allegedly identified in the Skripal case . In: Spiegel Online , September 26, 2018. 
    
    
87. ↑ «Умный, хороший, сообразительный» ( Eng . "Klug, gut, smart"). In: Kommersant , September 27, 2018.
88. ^ Sarah Rainsford, Will Vernon: Russian spy poisoning: Woman 'identifies' suspect as Anatoliy Chepiga. BBC News, September 29, 2018, accessed September 30, 2018 . 
89. ^ In Russia's Far East, villagers recognize a Skripal poisoning suspect . In: The Washington Post , September 28, 2018.
90. ↑ Second Skripal Poisoning Suspect Identified as Dr. Alexander Mishkin. Bellingcat Investigation Team, October 8, 2018, accessed October 8, 2018 . 
91. ^ Second suspect identified from Salisbury , NZZ , October 10, 2018, page 5
92. ^ First killer command, then diplomat , Tages-Anzeiger , February 25, 2020, page 5
93. ↑ СМИ: экс-полковник ГРУ Скрипаль пострадал из-за воздействия неизвестного вещества. В 2006 году Сергей Скрипаль был приговорен к 13 годам тюремного заключения в колонии стрипаль стисв вогого рееж пренима. March 5, 2018, accessed on June 6, 2018 (message TASS ). 
94. ↑ Би-би-си сообщила об отравлении шпионившего в пользу Лондона россиянина. March 5, 2018, accessed on June 6, 2018 (report from RBK ). 
95. ↑ Russian spy: State TV anchor warns 'traitors'. BBC News, March 8, 2018, accessed March 9, 2018 . 
96. ^ Salisbury nerve agent 'plot': new image shows police at scene unprotected against deadly toxin. In: Evening Standard , March 8, 2018.
97. ↑ Trump says Russia must provide answers on poisoning of ex-Russian spy. In: USA Today , March 13, 2018.
98. ↑ Moscow summons UK ambassador as it denies spy poisoning. In: Financial Times , March 13, 2018.
99. ↑ Russia calls poisoning accusations by Britain 'nonsense'. In: The Washington Post , March 13, 2018.
100. ↑ Moscow to London: Let us examine nerve agent used in spy poisoning. In: Reuters , March 13, 2018.
101. ↑ Press release on summoning the UK Ambassador to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation , March 13, 2018, accessed April 1, 2018 . 
102. ↑ Russian spy: Conspiracy theories and denial in Russia. In: BBC , March 16, 2018.
103. ↑ Russia is pushing these 14 mutually contradictory theories to claim they weren't behind the nerve agent attack. In: Businessinsider , March 20, 2018.
104. ↑ ^{a b} Russian media respond to poison attack on former spy with conspiracy theories. In: CBC News , March 13, 2018.
105. ↑ Russia accuses Western media of anti-World Cup Conspiracy After Ex-Spy's Poisoning. In: The Moscow Times , March 13, 2018.
106. ↑ Putin: Allegations of London against Novichok “irrelevant” . In: news.ORF.at . July 17, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed July 18, 2018]).
107. ↑ Putin offers to help with investigations. In: Zeit Online . March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018 . 
108. ^ EU shows solidarity with London after poison attack. APA report on derstandard.at of March 19, 2018, accessed on April 9, 2018.
109. ↑ Putin team: Pressure from London drove up voter turnout. dpa message on t-online.de from March 19, 2018, accessed on April 9, 2018.
110. ^ Questions from the Russian side to Great Britain regarding the "case of the Skripals" fabricated against Russia. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation , March 31, 2018, accessed April 1, 2018 . 
111. ↑ 27 questions. Neurotoxins work immediately. Why not with the Skripals? Welt online, March 31, 2018.
112. ^ Questions from the Russian side to France regarding the "case of the Skripals" fabricated by Great Britain against Russia. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation , March 31, 2018, accessed April 1, 2018 . 
113. ^ Questions from the Russian side to the tech secretariat of the OPCW regarding the "case of the Skripals" fabricated by Great Britain against Russia. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation , April 1, 2018, accessed April 1, 2018 (in Russian). 
114. ↑ Putin describes Skripal as a traitor. In: Zeit Online , October 3, 2018.
115. ↑ Peter Hille: Poison and Agents: Murder when changing sides. In: Deutsche Welle . March 7, 2018, accessed March 8, 2018 . 
116. ↑ Factbox: From polonium to a poisoned umbrella - mysterious fates of ... In: Reuters . March 6, 2018 ( reuters.com [accessed March 10, 2018]).
117. ↑ Russian spy: Boris Johnson warns Kremlin over Salisbury incident. In: BBC News. March 6, 2018, accessed March 6, 2018 . 
118. ^ Review of deaths with allegations of state responsibility. (PDF) March 6, 2018, accessed March 9, 2018 (English). 
119. ↑ Heidi Blake, Jason Leopold, Jane Bradley, Richard Holmes, Tom Warren, Alex Campbell: Poison in the System. BuzzfeedNews, June 12, 2017, accessed March 9, 2018 . 
120. ↑ After poisoning an ex-spy: May presents Russia ultimatum published on March 13, 2018 on merkur.de (Münchner Merkur), with material from the dpa
121. ↑ UK to expel 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation over Skripal attack. In: Financial Times , March 14, 2018.
122. ↑ Skripal case: Russia expels 23 British diplomats. Spiegel-Online, March 17, 2018.
123. ↑ Boris Johnson says Russia is 'not fooling anyone' with 'increasingly absurd' Salisbury nerve agent attack denials. In: The Independent , March 19, 2018.
124. ↑ British minister calls Putin's strategy "malicious". Zeit Online, April 1, 2018.
125. ↑ letter of Sedwill to NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg , April 13, 2018 made public by the Guardian.
126. ↑ Russia spy poisoning: Czechs angrily reject Russia claims. In: BBC , March 17, 2018.
127. ↑ Spy poison claim against Sweden 'just a guess': Russia. In: The Local , March 20, 2018.
128. ^ President Zeman: The Czech Republic also produced Novitschok neurotoxin. Stern, May 4, 2018.
129. ↑ The Czech Republic experimented with Novitschok: “The amount was supposedly small” orf.at, May 4, 2018, accessed May 4, 2018.
130. ↑ Angela Dewan, Milena Veselinovic, Carol Jordan: These are all the countries that are expelling Russian diplomats. CNN, March 28, 2018, accessed March 20, 2018 . 
131. ↑ Russia spy: Allies condemn nerve agent attack. BBC News, March 15, 2018, accessed March 15, 2018 . 
132. ↑ see also whitehouse.gov: Statement by the Press Secretary on the United Kingdom's Decision to Expel Russian Diplomats
133. ↑ FAZ.net / Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger : Russian pattern ( comment )
134. ↑ Alexander Menden, Daniel Brössler: Skripal case: "Just go away and shut up". published on March 15, 2018 on sueddeutsche.de
135. ↑ see also www.NATO.int March 14, 2018: Statement by the North Atlantic Council on the use of a nerve agent in Salisbury .
136. ↑ EU supports Great Britain in the case of Sergej Skripal. In: Der Tagesspiegel . March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018 . 
137. ↑ case Skripal: EU tightens tone towards Russia welt.net/dpa. 22 March 2018.
138. ↑ Conclusions of the European Council on the Salisbury attack, 22 March 2018 consilium.europa.eu. March 22, 2018.
139. ↑ EU withdraws ambassador from Moscow .
140. ^ Holding Russia Accountable for Its Destabilizing Behavior. In: US Department of State. US Department of State , March 27, 2018, accessed March 27, 2018 . 
141. ↑ spiegel.de March 30, 2018: How Trump managed to expel Russian diplomats .
142. ↑ NZZ.ch March 27, 2018: Poison attack: NATO also has Russian diplomats deported .
143. ↑ USA announce new sanctions against Russia. The attack on ex-agent Skripal is still straining US relations with Russia. The new punitive measures are intended to affect Russian financial transactions. August 3, 2019, accessed August 6, 2019 . 
144. ^ André Ballin: Trump approves new sanctions against Russia. The US president hesitated for a long time, but has now given the okay for new measures against Moscow. The background is once again the Skripal affair. August 3, 2019, accessed August 6, 2019 . 
145. ↑ Germany shows four Russian diplomats. rp-online, March 26, 2018.
146. ↑ Michael Götschenberg : Berlin is still waiting for evidence. To date, Berlin has not received any evidence from London about the Skripal case. The German intelligence services also have no knowledge of their own that Russia could be responsible for the poison attack. (No longer available online.) June 7, 2018, archived from the original on June 7, 2018 ; accessed on June 6, 2018 . 
147. ↑ No evidence of Russian responsibility in the Skripal attack. Great Britain quickly determined who was responsible for the poison attack on ex-Russian agent Sergej Skripal and his daughter: it must have been Russia. The arguments for this are sound, one has also heard from many other European politicians - including Germany. However, the federal government has so far had no evidence of Russia's responsibility for the attack, as ARD intelligence expert Michael Götschenberg reports. (No longer available online.) June 7, 2018, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 6, 2018 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
148. ↑ Fatal composition of the poison confirmed in the Skripal case. Tages-Anzeiger, April 12, 2018.
149. ^ Nerve poison affair: Waiting for clarity in the Skripal case. Deutsche Welle, April 4, 2018.
150. ↑ case Skripal: Violent accusations between London and Moscow. In: The time . April 4, 2018, accessed April 5, 2018 . 
151. ↑ Russia's curious questions: "Where are the pets, in what condition are they?" In: Die Welt . April 4, 2018, accessed April 5, 2018 . 
152. ↑ ^{a b} Andreas Rüesch: No doubt about the Nowitschok result. NZZ, April 6, 2018.
153. ↑ Laura Smith-Park, Simon Cullen: 'Pure' Novichok used in Skripal attack, watchdog confirms. CNN, April 12, 2018.
154. ↑ ОЗХО: пострадавшие в Эймсбери были отравлены «Новичком». (No longer available online.) In: Nowaja Gaseta. September 4, 2018, archived from the original on September 5, 2018 ; Retrieved May 13, 2019 (Russian, OPCW: Victims in Amesbury were poisoned by "Novichok"). 
155. ↑ ^{a b} Russia's claim about the Spiez ABC Laboratory disappears into thin air. The Federal Government, April 18, 2018.
156. ↑ Andreas Rüesch: Russia attacks the Skripal investigation head-on and draws Switzerland into the controversy. NZZ, April 15, 2018.
157. ↑ ^{a b} Russian defeat in the Skripal case - OPCW exposes brazen disinformation , NZZ, April 19, 2018, p. 1.
158. ↑ erwaertiges-amt.de: False rumors in the Skripal case .
159. ^ Russians Planned Attack on Lab Testing Salisbury Nerve Agent, Swiss Say . In: The New York Times , September 14, 2018.
160. ↑ ^{a b} Russian spies arrested on the way to the Bernese Oberland . In: Tages-Anzeiger , September 13, 2018.
161. ↑ Twee Russian spies op weg naar Zwitsers gifgaslab pakt in The Hague . In: NRC Handelsblad , September 13, 2018.
162. ↑ Two Russian spies arrested on the way to Switzerland. In: srf.ch. Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, September 14, 2018, accessed on September 14, 2018 . 
163. ↑ ^{a b} Poisoned Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter seek safe haven in NZ or Australia , NZHerald, March 1, 2020
164. ↑ Skripal's niece allegedly receives a call from her uncle. In: Spiegel Online . May 29, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2019 . 
165. ↑ The mysterious niece. In: Spiegel Online . April 23, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2019 . 
166. ↑ Russian exile found dead in London. In: Spiegel Online. March 13, 2018, accessed March 14, 2018 . 
167. ↑ Deutsche Welle : POISON STOP A Novitschok case in Bulgaria? , February 12, 2019