Poisoned former spy Sergei Skripal has been discharged from Salisbury District Hospital and will continue to receive outpatient care.
NYT:
Mr. Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, were both in critical condition after they were poisoned with a nerve agent known as a novichok — developed by Soviet scientists for battlefield use against Western troops — in the cathedral city of Salisbury, in southwest England, on March 4.
The British authorities said that Russia was to blame for the attack, an accusation that significantly raised tensions between the two countries and led to the expulsion of hundreds of diplomats from Britain, its allies and Russia.
(...)
Shortly after the poisoning, both victims were put into induced comas, a technique that lowers metabolism and may prevent poison from damaging the organs. They were also given medication to suppress seizures and an antidote, like atropine.
Early reports suggested that the Skripals were hovering between life and death ...
But both started to improve, and Yulia left the hospital April 9th. She now is in a secure location.
NYT:
The attack may have gone awry because of the “substrate” that was mixed with the nerve agent in order to get it to stick to the victims’ skin, said Richard Guthrie, a chemical weapons expert formerly of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The police have suggested that the nerve agent was in liquid form, and that the Skripals were exposed at Mr. Skripal’s front door.
“When a hand touches that door handle, you’ve got to have some material coming off on the hand and staying on the hand without falling off onto any other surface,” he said. “It’s very rare for a poison to do that on its own.”
(...)
Mr. Guthrie said the substrate — which, in a contact poisoning, could be a substance like hand cream or petroleum jelly — may have prevented the nerve agent from entering the victims’ bloodstream in a fatal dose.
The fact that Sergei and Yulia fell ill outside on a park bench may have been what saved their lives.
Alastair Hay, professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, said the exposure “would have killed them if they hadn’t had the right treatment.”
“I have it on good authority that the symptoms were recognized by the medical staff very early, and that enabled them to institute treatment promptly,” he said. He added that the attacker may have expected the two to lose consciousness and die inside the house.
“They wouldn’t have been found if they had stayed inside,” Mr. Hay said.
BBC:
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said he understood that Mr Skripal is able to walk, and has talked to police at length, but is not completely recovered.
He said police sources indicated that the investigation could take months of carefully piecing together movements of people and cars from mobile phone records, CCTV, automatic number plate recognition and passenger flight records.
The Metropolitan Police said its investigation into the attack continued and it would not "be discussing any protective or security arrangements that are in place".
(...)
Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko welcomed the news that Mr Skripal had been discharged, and repeated his demand for consular access to the former spy and his daughter.
At a news conference at his official residence in London, Mr Yakovenko said: "We are happy that he is all right."
The Russian ambassador has previously claimed the UK is violating international law by not granting access to the Skripals.
"If they don't want our assistance, that's fine, but we want to see them physically," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the news of Mr. Skripal's departure from the hospital during a press conference in Sochi.
NYT:
“Thank God he has gotten better, been discharged from the hospital,” he said. “I hope he will be healthy, alive and unscathed.”
But he also used the occasion to dismiss accusations from Britain that Russia was behind the attempt to poison Mr. Skripal with a deadly toxin. If a military-grade nerve agent had been used, he said, “then this person would have died on the spot.”
Sergei Skripal, Russian Ex-Spy, Leaves U.K. Hospital After Poisoning (NYT)