The Mirror first reported and NBC News now has corroborated the story that Boris Karpichkov, a former double agent living in Britain, also was poisoned like Sergei Skripal. Karpichov told The Mirror on March 10th that "he and Skripal were on a hit-list of EIGHT defectors Vladimir Putin wants dead ..." The other six include four Russians, plus Magnitsky Act advocate Bill Browder and Trump dossier author Christopher Steele.
The ex-KGB major claims he suffered the first of two chemical attacks in November 2006 – the week defector Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London by polonium in a cup of tea.
Karpichkov had fled to New Zealand after being warned by MI5 that an attempt on his life was imminent.
He says: “A street beggar came up and sprayed something in my face.
"I felt the earth spin and had flu-like symptoms. In a couple of months I’d lost 66lbs and all body hair. I was a walking corpse.”
Medical records seen by the Sunday Mirror show poisoning was suspected though never proved. In March 2007 Karpichkov fell ill again after a chemical was sprayed on his carpet.
Toxicology tests in New Zealand and London could not pinpoint the cause.
Now in the wake of the Skripal poisoning, Karpichkov says he was warned last month by a secret contact in the FSB – the modern-day KGB – to look out for e-cigarettes concealing nerve gas.
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Chillingly, Karpichkov reveals: “I’ve been told the FSB Kolegia, a gathering of its high ranking officers, met the day after Skripal was attacked.
“Vladimir Putin was there and was briefed that the hit had been a success.” And he reveals other names on a hit list he has been given by his contact.
Karpichkov says an old friend warned him he was in danger last month.
Karpichkov, 59, says that at first he thought the call was a joke rather than a threat — typically dark Russian humor. But Skripal's poisoning has put him on high alert. “Trademark FSB,” he says, referring to Russia’s security agency, the Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB. NBC News interviewed Karpichkov over the weekend at a rented studio in London; he refused to say where he lives in the U.K.
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Karpichkov was one of two former double agents who spoke with NBC News about their anxieties in the wake of the Skripal poisoning.
Victor Makarov, another former KGB agent, fears for his safety but lives in a much less guarded way than Karpichkov.
He invited NBC News to his small apartment in a public housing block in the sleepy northern England town of Haltwhistle. He considers the watchful neighbors and tight-knit community his best defense against any attempt on his life by Russian agents.
“If any stranger appears, he will be immediately seen, believe me,” says the 63-year-old. “I have two people on my side: God and the local community.”
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Makarov, now a British citizen, believes that Putin, resentful toward the West for “being ignored,” simply wants to be reckoned with. He “adores brinkmanship and intimidation,” Makarov says.
Watch Boris Karpichkov on Good Morning Britain (3/12/18):
Russian spy claims he was poisoned just like Sergei Skripal as Vladimir Putin wants him dead (The Mirror)
Russian ex-spy says he was on Kremlin 'hit list' along with poisoned Skripal (NBC News)