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Police Say Nerve Agent Was Used in Attempt to Kill Sergei Skripal
Police say that they have identified a specific nerve agent as being used in an attempt to kill a Russian who once spied for the UK. They have not named the nerve agent that was used. Officers who responded to the scene have also been hospitalized:
A nerve agent was used to try to murder a former Russian spy and his daughter, police have said. Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious in Salisbury on Sunday afternoon and remain critically ill. A police officer who was the first to attend the scene is now in a serious condition in hospital, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said.
[...] Mr Rowley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, said government scientists had identified the agent used, but would not make that information public at this stage. "This is being treated as a major incident involving attempted murder, by administration of a nerve agent," he said. "Having established that a nerve agent is the cause of the symptoms... I can also confirm that we believe that the two people who became unwell were targeted specifically."
[...] Two other police officers who attended the scene were treated in hospital for minor symptoms, before they were given the all clear. It is understood their symptoms included itchy eyes and wheezing.
After 15th Alleged Russian Hit in the UK, Counter Terrorism Command takes over Investigation
Mr Skripal, 66, who was imprisoned in Russia for working for British intelligence and later came to the UK as part of a spy swap, is currently in critical condition, along with his 33-year-old daughter who was also taken ill. Authorities say they are trying to determine if he was poisoned.
Russia has denied any involvement, but the case has put renewed scrutiny on a string of deaths in the UK in the past two decades. The chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper MP, wrote to Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Tuesday calling for a review of 14 other cases.
... British police say they have found no evidence of Russian involvement in any of the cases barring Litvinenko's.
"British police are under no sort of political pressure whatsoever," Tony Brenton, the British ambassador to Moscow at the time of Litvinenko's death, told the BBC. "If they had found evidence of Russian involvement in those cases, we would have followed it up."
But the UK government has faced criticism over a perceived lack of action. In the wake of Litvinenko's death, the UK tried and failed to extradite two Russian agents alleged to have carried out the hit. Instead, several Russian diplomats were expelled, provoking a tit for tat response from Russia.
...
In Salisbury, counter-terror police have taken over the investigation. The park bench where Mr Skripal collapsed has been cordoned off and a restaurant where he ate lunch has been temporarily closed.
At BBC World.
Previously: Former Russian Spy Exposed to "Unknown Substance" in Salisbury, England
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @03:32AM (18 children)
The toxicity of nerve agents is such that a person involved in delivery of the agent incurs extreme risk merely by being in proximity to the agent.
Because of this, I am curious about how the agent was delivered, and whether it was airborne,
or whether actual skin contact was used as in the case of the Korean half-brother's assassination.
We may never know, but it's an interesting question nonetheless.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @04:18AM (9 children)
they are small molecules, so any form of exposure will work. However, they do degrade quite fast.
Without wanting to speculate, it is not hard imagining coating a surface commonly touched by either party.
Vanishingly small quantities are needed, and the very fact they managed to get treatment suggests the received dose was low.
(Score: 2) by EETech1 on Friday March 09 2018, @06:10AM
Seems like something you could build into a jacket.
Just have a pressurized capsule, and a nozzle hidden in the back, trigger it with your hand in your pocket as you walk by them on the bench.
Proceed to your hotel room for decontamination.
You must be stealthy, remember that park bench likely had a camera mounted on it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @06:11AM (7 children)
Russia is using exotic weapons (polonium, nerve agent, etc.) because this sends a message. Everybody knows that Putin can kill defectors with impunity. He doesn't have to succeed every time.
The goal here is to make all defectors afraid of being killed. It isn't important to kill a specific person.
If the attempt were serious, a Russian agent would convince a Muslim immigrant to stab the defector with a knife. Ideally this would be done without pay, for example by having the Russian agent claim that the defector had been insulting Mohammed. Nobody would ever trace this back to Russia, and the police would quickly brush the "Asian" crime under the rug. Most likely, Russia and other countries have done this numerous times.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 09 2018, @07:26AM (1 child)
They'd just shoot/stab the target and make it look like a robbery. No need to leave a patsy behind who might screw up the whole operation.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @10:09AM
Nah, that's the American M.O. Simple and effective.
The Russians are death tech geeks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @07:28AM (3 children)
Funnily enough there are at least 13 very recent cases [businessinsider.com] where Russia might very much like the people involved to keep their mouths shut, and maybe highlight the dangerous consequences of defection to them as well. Possibly. Perhaps it's just one of those "astounding coincidences".
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday March 09 2018, @07:55AM
Maybe. Maybe not. The 3 ring circus going on serves their ends just fine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @08:00AM
Russia has a few people buy a piddly amount of advertising, amounting to 0.005% of the amount spent in the election, using it to generate a bit of strife such as that New York protest with Michael Moore... and what does it matter? This does not embarrass Putin at home in Russia.
If you are ex-KGB and want to suffer horribly, repeat the allegations that Putin was shipped off to an undesirable post due to molesting boys. You'll end up consuming something like einsteinium, or a purified plutonium isotope, or rosary pea toxin, or cisplatin, or...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Friday March 09 2018, @12:51PM
One can make a statistical determination of the probability that the instances were random. For example, consider the set of all people involved in "X". What is the likelihood that person A would die by chance? What is the likelihood that person A + person B would die, based on e.g. lifestyle factors, age, etc. The challenge is to not introduce a selection bias when choosing the set of all people involved in "X". What happens if we change the selection criteria? One can estimate the systematic bias by changing the selection criteria.
Presumably CIA/MI5/MI6 have some people who do this sort of statistical analysis.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday March 09 2018, @06:47PM
> If the attempt were serious
Almost killing three people with a nerve agent can be, a bit like an ACME gun with a BANG! flag, considered "not serious". TMYK!
(Score: 5, Informative) by Whoever on Friday March 09 2018, @06:27AM (7 children)
In fact a police officer who merely helped Skripal is also very ill in hospital.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Friday March 09 2018, @07:37AM (5 children)
Either way though, the use of nerve agent does tend to point to a state actor and there's really only one obvious state that would seem to have both motive and a track record in this area. Given the method seems to have entailed an extremely high risk of innocent collateral victims I suspect there's going to be a lot of pressure from the more hawkish members of government to be seen to be taking a hard line on those thought (or known) to be responsible. Expelling diplomats alone probably isn't going to cut it, so we can probably expect to see a whole bunch of trade and travel sanctions getting slapped on various parties in fairly short order followed by some tit-for-tat responses which, on top of a likely tradewar instigated by the US' introduction of new import tariffs, is just what the world economy needs at this point.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Friday March 09 2018, @12:53PM (4 children)
The UK government is taking the line "prove who is guilty then respond" - a responsible line I think. Maybe just a quiet way of flapping/procrastinating/burying, but I can't imagine US government responding in the same way.
What was the diplomatic outcome following Litvinenko?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Friday March 09 2018, @01:40PM (1 child)
The outcome after Litvinenko is in TFS; the UK tried (and failed) to expel the likely perpetrators, expelled a few Russian diplomats instead, and the Russians then responded in kind. Typically in these cases the "diplomats" being expelled are those connected with the security services and has the secondary effect of disrupting communications with local informants and agents, but with the corollary that you might not catch all the replacements, so it's a bit more serious than it might at first appear. Assuming the UK can single out one country, or perhaps a group of individuals, then I'm fully expecting a similar response here too, and if that country happens to be Russia (who has to be the prime suspect given they have the means, the motive, *and* past history) then there will probably be an escalation for the repeat offence, which probably means some additional trade sanctions that will probably also be reciprocated. There's also been talk of some form of political boycott of the World Cup, although that was mostly Boris Johnson so might not actually have any grounds in reality.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday March 09 2018, @02:43PM
> The outcome after Litvinenko is in TFS
I guess I didn't even read TFS, let alone TFA. Mod me down :)
> There's also been talk of some form of political boycott of the World Cup, although that was mostly Boris Johnson so might not actually have any grounds in reality.
I note that Russia has been allowed back into the Bolympics. I wonder if that will lead to some boycotts by nations who don't condone cheating => break up of the bolympics (not a bad thing IMHO, it's just a big advertising hack/scam)
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Monday March 12 2018, @12:58AM (1 child)
What on earth are you talking about? They are about the only country in the world still not convinced that the Russians helped get Trump elected as President....
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday March 12 2018, @09:44AM
> What on earth are you talking about?
The US media theatre tends to push for a "shoot from the hip" mentality in government. But I agree, the Trump vs Russia thing is a point.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by choose another one on Friday March 09 2018, @09:02AM
Where "merely helped" is apparently "gave CPR to". Significant exposure is not really surprising if that is the case.