Former Soviet-era spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were transported to a Salisbury, England hospital after falling seriously ill and collapsing on a park bench Sunday. British counter-terror police have taken over the investigation, and "several emergency responders were hospitalized" after dealing with the two.
The pair remain in a critical condition and are being treated for exposure to an unknown substance.
The authorities were so concerned about the nature of that substance that a restaurant and pub remain closed to the public and a small number of emergency workers were taken to hospital to be assessed. A Wiltshire police spokesman said one of those first responders was still in the hospital.
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Until British authorities have obtained toxicology reports it will remain unclear whether Skripal’s collapse raises suspicions about Russian influence.
In previous examples of suspected Russian assassinations in Britain, the poison has not been detected until long after the victims had sought medical assistance.
Former FSB officer Litvinenko died in agony in a North London hospital after polonium-210 was slipped into a pot of tea at a Mayfair hotel by two Russian agents, Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun.
It was weeks before the authorities identified the highly unusual radioactive poison and many more years until an official inquiry formally found that Litvinenko had “probably” been murdered on the orders of the Kremlin.
The case of Alexander Perepilichnyy, a Russian whistleblower who collapsed while running near his home in the suburbs outside London, was even more embarrassing for the British authorities.
Local police initially believed that he had died of natural causes, but a shock toxicology report later suggested the hand of an assassin. Traces of the deadly Gelsemium elegans flower, which is a known weapon of Chinese and Russian contract killers, were found in his stomach.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson cautioned Tuesday it would be “wrong to prejudge” the fast-moving investigation but warned that if Russia were found responsible, the British government would respond “robustly.” Johnson told Parliament that Russia was now a “malign and disruptive force.”
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Skripal was jailed in Russia in 2006 after he was convicted of passing the names of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe to MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service.
In 2010, he was handed over to Britain as one of four prisoners released by Moscow in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents living in the United States.
Why it matters: Russia is already under mounting pressure over rising evidence of the hybrid war — which includes cyberwarfare, disinformation, targeted assassinations and support for proxies fighting wars abroad — that it is waging against the West. If the Kremlin is found to be involved in the poisoning of the former spy on U.K. soil, the British government pledged to explore further sanctions on Russia, on top of those already being applied by the U.S. and the E.U. for the annexation of Crimea and fomenting of conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Suspicions of poison and warnings to Russia over double agent's illness (Axios)
Britain Threatens Retaliation Against Kremlin After Russian Spy Collapse (Daily Beast)
Former Russian spy critically ill in Britain after suspected poisoning (WaPo)