Poisoning of Sergei Skripal

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Hazmat team in Salisbury near the bench where Sergei Skripal was found unconscious.
@FT is trying to convince British public that MI6 agent Skripal actively worked for the Russian intelligence, that’s why he was dangerous for Russia. Little doubt the investigation will be classified.
-- Russian Embassy, UK
How is the poisoning of Sergei Skripal connected to Russiagate?
For further details and discussion, see the talk page. (To see what is hot, see recent changes)

Who is Sergei Skripal?

Moved to Sergei Skripal

The attack

Witness Freya Church first saw the two people on the bench
CCTV video shows two people walking toward the bench where the Skripals were later found. Who are they? The Skripals or Pablo Miller and an unknown blonde?
Did anyone see Akhmed Zakayev or Vanessa Redgrave in Salisbury on March 4th?
How much cash was in the red bag left at the attack scene? £100,000?
Locations where the Skripals were allegedly seen. The sequence of events is still unknown.
Doctors see no sign of a nerve agent being used.

Witnesses

Meanwhile, a doctor who was one of the first people at the scene has described how she found Ms Skripal slumped unconscious on a bench, vomiting and fitting. She had also lost control of her bodily functions. The woman, who asked not to be named, told the BBC she moved Ms Skripal into the recovery position and opened her airway, as others tended to her father. She said she treated her for almost 30 minutes, saying there was no sign of any chemical agent on Ms Skripal's face or body. The doctor said she had been worried she would be affected by the nerve agent, but added that she "feels fine".
The body of a young man was found in Salisbury today. The man's body was found hanging from a tree on a footpath near the river Avon between Devizes Road and Stratford-sub-Castle. [...] A police spokesman said: [...] "There are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances in relation to the death. [...] This is not linked to the on-going incident in Salisbury city centre."

Interviews

See also:talk

Yulia Skripal - see talk

Police officer-Sgt. Nick Bailey.

Sgt Tracey Holloway and PC Alex Collins

Story of chief army nurse

This aspect of the maltings incident did not emerge in public until Jan 2019, when a 16 year old Alison McCourt was presented with a live saver award by local radio station Spire FM, inviting some sceptism from commentators - See Nurse? ACLOS discussion

Biographical details

CCTV

  • Lavrov: Just like the video camera turned off in the morning, when the Skripals were found on a park bench. It’s just that the video camera that was watching their house was turned off and then it turned on, January 17, 2020

Timeline according to sources

Police arrived at Skripal's home in Christie Miller Road, Salisbury, yesterday at 5pm, according to neighbours.

Morning to 1.40 pm, 4 March 2018

  • Russian spy poisoning: What we know so far - BBC, 8 Oct. 2018
    • On Sunday, 4 March, at about 09:15 GMT, Mr Skripal's car was seen in Salisbury around London Road, Churchill Way North and Wilton Road
    • At 13:30 GMT his car was seen driving down Devizes Road, towards the town centre
    • Mr Skripal and his daughter arrived at the Sainsbury's upper level car park at the Maltings shopping precinct at 13:40 GMT
  • CCTV shows ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter driving into Salisbury just hours before they were found poisoned - as police probe whether his BMW was booby-trapped with deadly nerve agent - Mail Online, 16, 17 March 2018
    • The Daily Mail has discovered more video showing the former Russian spy’s maroon BMW driving away from his home on a cul-de-sac at 1.33pm The five-door 3-series is seen travelling along a residential street towards the city centre
    • The latest images from India Avenue which is less than a minute away from Skripal’s property suggests they did not leave home until after 1.30pm.
    • The time stamp on the clip reads 14:55, and is ahead of the actual time.
    • Earlier this week the Mail obtained footage showing the car with the registration HD09 WAO at 1.35pm travelling further along the route to the centre past the Devizes Inn pub. Detectives seized the CCTV from the pub on Devizes Road on Tuesday night, however Scotland Yard has yet to release any images to the public.
  • Google map (Christie Miller Road, India Road, Devizes Road)

Timeline

4 March, 2018
  • Skripals collapse at a bench in the afternoon. Chief military nurse and her daughter (among) the first attending
  • According to John Helmer, Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson said through a spokesman: “We can confirm that police attended Christie Miller Road in Salisbury on the evening of 4 March 2018” “as part of our early enquiries into the incident.” (John Helmer: That was not an answer to the question Macpherson was asked).
The statement was made in an email response from Wilts Police Press Office to John Helmer
  • BBC: Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found seriously ill on a bench in Salisbury on the afternoon of Sunday 4 March. That night, Det Sgt Bailey and two colleagues were sent to their home, in a quiet suburb. Clad in full forensic suits, they were tasked with making sure there were no other casualties. (Also stated in the opening lines of embedded video).
After 4 March

According to BBC Youtube clip 18min

  • 10 AM on Monday, 5 March 2018. 'External event', 'multi-agency response' declared. Incident room, clear lines of communication.
  • Tuesday, 6 March 2018. Plc srg Bailey admitted, members of the public started to arrive suspecting 'symptoms'. 'Questions asked, what exactly are we dealing with here?'. Also on Tuesday, ACHE inhibition understood, without details on the nerve agent. District general hospital lab cannot test for the nerve agent, but they tested for 'anticholinesterases levels'. 'Colleagues at Porton Down helped us with the testing' (5:40)
  • After that, 'Military-like operation' started
  • After further tests, Novichok was identified
The real role of Porton Down “international experts” is unclear. One would be interested to know at what stage they became engaged in the clinical care and what specific “best therapies and new approaches to well-known treatments” they suggested. At the same time, we were astonished to hear the medical staff saying that they had not had high hopes of ever having their two patients recover from the nerve agent poisoning and had been “surprised” by the speed of their recovery. This does not fall in line with the statements that Sergei and Yulia Skripal have been saved thanks to the timely “very good generic basic critical care” in the first hours and days after the poisoning.
Moreover, the timeline of the events described by the doctors contradicts the previous media reports that specialists with chemical weapons training “happened to be” on duty at the hospital when Sergei and Yulia Skripal were admitted. There are yet more inconsistencies: although the sites visited by Sergei and Yulia Skripal on 4 March are undergoing a thorough chemical clean-up, there has been no clear explanation as to why decontamination of the hospital never took place.


Suspicious people seen

  • Suspicious masked woman spotted - The Daily Mail, March 12, 2018
    The dark-haired woman was spotted wearing a black face mask as she left a Pret a Manger, a three-minute walk from where Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were later found convulsing and vomiting. At the time the pair were thought to be in the Mill pub a few yards away... Mr Francis, 50, said: ‘We were in the town centre in Pret a Manger. We were in there at 3.35pm and I was sitting by the door and this lady walked out at 3.40pm.
    ‘She was wearing a Sars mask, a black Sars mask tucked around her chin and a bag in her hand...‘She had dark hair, a single woman, but I didn’t think she was obviously Asian.’
    On Sunday it was reported that a witness told police that an hour before the couple collapsed he saw a ‘man in a mask’ with his hood up acting suspiciously nearby. The witness said: ‘He looked threatening and aggressive and he was walking towards us with purpose. He gave me a stern look as he passed us by about 100 yards from the bench where they found the Russians.’

Disinformation

Most likely disinformation


What is the poison?

The short public version of the OPCW report did not name the chemical structure or name of the "nerve agent" found in the environmental samples. This information was only disclosed to "State Parties".

The OPCW report does say it agrees with Porton Down’s findings on the substance – but Porton Down said it was a Novichok or something else like one Skawkbox 12th April, 2018

Source of poison?

Fast or slow acting?

'Novichok'

Moved to Novichok
Clinical services journal reports exposure to fentanyl 5th March

Fentanyl

Early reports that made it to CNN spoke of the opioid Fentanyl as a cause of poisoning. These reports go back to the Salisbury Journal which has reported at least four times that they were told by "emergency services" that this drug could have been involved. A month earlier, the Journal reported about a prominent case of someone selling the substance on the "darkweb" and was send to prison for eight years over it.

A PARAMEDIC who was among the first to respond to Sergei Skripal and his daughter told the Prime Minister they had initially treated the pair for drugs. ... The man, named Ian, said he had been in the first ambulance service response car on the scene. Mrs May asked him: "At that stage you could only treat for what you can see?" Salisbury MP John Glen interjected to say he had heard initial reports the incident was drug-related. To which the paramedic replied: "Absolutely that's what I was treating for, that's what we treated them for initially."
(Noted: paramedic will almost certainly have medical gloves, and likely no mask or respirator. Policeman likely will not have gloves and certainly no mask or respirator. If aerosol was sprayed, paramedic will be poisoned. So looks like skin or food method of delivery --Resup (talk) 17:30, 24 March 2018 (UTC))
Salisbury District Hospital declared a “major incident” on Monday 5 March, after two patients were exposed to an opioid. The fire service was called to decontaminate the hospital’s Accident & Emergency unit, as paramedics treated the casualties. Emergency personnel arrived to the scene, wearing full-body hazardous materials protective and an incident response unit was on site.It followed an incident hours earlier in which a man and a woman were exposed to the drug Fentanyl in the city centre. The opioid is 10,000 times stronger than heroin., Clinical Services Journal 5th March
By now there is a note under the article saying that it was changed on April 26 "to remove suggestion (which was widely speculated and reported at the time of writing) that the substance found was fentanyl." There is a MoA article which narrows the time when this note was added. IIRC it was shortly after the change and before 3 May. --CE (talk) 15:25, 6 May 2018 (UTC)
From the MoA article: All reference to Fentanyl as cause of the Skripal illness in a March 5 article has been removed between April 26 and April 27.

Sarin?

Organophosphate pesticide

See also Talk:Poisoning of Sergei Skripal#Scheduled chemicals

Botulinum toxin

Did this risotto pesce at the Zizzi restaurant cause the poisoning?
See Botulism and Botulinum toxin on Wikipedia.
  • How the 'poisoned' spy plot unfolded in Salisbury - Daily Mail, March 6, 2018
    They ordered from the menu, choosing the 600 calorie risotto pesce with king prawns, mussels and squid rings in a tomato, chilli and white wine sauce. But within minutes Mr Skripal had become angry, a witness said.
    • Symptoms usually appear 12–36 hours after eating, but can also appear within 2 hours to 10 days.
    • Botulinum inhibits the release within the nervous system of acetylcholine (ACh), a neurotransmitter.
    • While nerve agents inhibit the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which is responsible for the breakdown of acetylcholine (ACh) in the synapse. Muscles are prevented from relaxing and are effectively paralyzed. This includes the heart and the muscles used for breathing. Because of this, the first symptoms usually appear within seconds of exposure.
  • Novichok: Russia's Antidote to Seafood Poisoning - CanSpeccy, April 12, 2018

Tetrodotoxin

See Tetrodotoxin on Wikipedia

Israeli mystery opioid

BZ and the Spiez laboratory leak

See also OPCW discussion on talk page.
  • Wikipedia: BZ is an odorless military incapacitating agent.
  • The US Army's Medical Management of Chemical Casualties Handbook, globalsecurity.org (some problem with earlier link amedd.army.mil).
    (pp 158+, 170+ ) BZ and other glycolates. The agent BZ and other anticholinergic glycolates act as competitive inhibitors of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine neurons (1) at postjunctional muscarinic receptors in cardiac and smooth muscle and in exocrine (ducted) glands and (2) at postsynaptic receptors in neurons. As the concentration of BZ at these sites increases, the proportion of receptors available for binding to acetylcholine decreases and the end organ "sees" less acetylcholine. (One way of visualizing this process is to imagine BZ coating the surface of the end organ and preventing acetylcholine from reaching its receptors.) Because BZ has little to no agonist activity with respect to acetylcholine, high concentrations of BZ essentially substitute a "dud" for acetylcholine at these sites and lead to clinical effects reflective of understimulation of end organs
    (pp 158+). BZ causes peripheral nervous system (PNS) effects that in general are the opposite of those seen in nerve agent poisoning. CNS effects include stupor, confusion, and confabulation with concrete and panoramic illusions and hallucinations (Fentanyl) Maintenance of the patient’s airway is critical for his survival (done in Yulia's case) as well as the rapid administration of the antidote, an opioid antagonist, naloxone or naltrexone.
    (Clinical effects, 171+) Peripheral Effects: Mydriasis (dilation of the pupil of the eye), blurred vision, Dry mouth, skin, Initially rapid heart rate; later, normal or slow heart rate, Possible atropine flush (=blush)- apparently no mentioning of those
    (173) The PNS effects of BZ are essentially side effects that are useful in diagnosis, but incidental to the CNS effects for which the incapacitating agents were developed. These CNS effects include a dose-dependent decrease in the level of consciousness, beginning with drowsiness and progressing through sedation to stupor and coma. The patient is often disoriented to time and place. Disturbances in judgment and insight appear. The patient may abandon socially imposed restraints and resort to vulgar and inappropriate behavior. Perceptual clues may no longer be readily interpretable, and the patient is easily distracted and may have memory loss, most notably short-term memory. In the face of these deficits, the patient still tries to make sense of his environment and will not hesitate to make up answers on the spot to questions that confuse him. Speech becomes slurred and often senseless, and loss of inflection produces a flat, monotonous voice. References become concrete and semiautomatic with colloquialisms, clichés, profanity, and perseveration. Semiautomatic behavior may also include disrobing (perhaps partly because of increased body temperature), mumbling, and phantom behaviors such as constant picking, plucking, or grasping motions (Skripal was upset in the restaurant but not in the way described here)
    (178) Clinical effects from ingestion or inhalation of BZ appear after an asymptomatic or latent period that may be as little as 30 minutes or as long as 20 hours; the usual range is 0.5 to 4 hours, with a mean of 2 hours. However, effects may not appear up to 36 hours after skin exposure to BZ. Once effects appear, their duration is typically 72 to 96 hours and dose-dependent.
    Noted, according to policeman first on the scene, Skripal was sitting slumped on the bench, and loaded to ambulance still maintaining sitting position; while Yulia had airways problem and was assisted by a passer-by medic; neither the medic no 2 police attending were affected.
  • Lavrov statement, made in his speech at the 26th Assembly of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, Moscow, April 14, 2018
I will now be quoting what they sent to the OPCW in their report. You understand that this is a translation from a foreign language but I will read it in Russian, quote: “Following our analysis, the samples indicate traces of the toxic chemical BZ and its precursor which are second category chemical weapons. BZ is a nerve toxic agent, which temporarily disables a person. The psycho toxic effect is achieved within 30 to 60 minutes after its use and lasts for up to four days. This composition was in operational service in the armies of the US, the UK and other NATO countries. The Soviet Union and Russia neither designed nor stored such chemical agents. Also, the samples indicate the presence of type A-234 nerve agent in its virgin state and also products of its degradation.” End of quote. According to the specialists’ estimates, the significant concentration of A-234 discovered would have inevitably been lethal, and taking into account its high volatility, the fact that the specialists in the city of Spiez found it in its virgin state and also with high purity and in high concentration, appears to be utterly suspicious, because the period which elapsed between the poisoning and sampling was fairly long – I think, over two weeks.
Taking into account that Yulia Skripal and the policeman have already been released from hospital, whereas Sergei Skripal, as the British claim without letting us see either Yulia or Sergei, is still recovering, the clinical pattern corresponds more to the use of a BZ agent. Nothing is said whatsoever about a BZ agent in the final report that the OPCW experts presented to its Executive Council. In this connection we address the OPCW a question about why the information, that I have just read out loud and which reflects the findings of the specialists from the city of Spiez, was withheld altogether in the final document. If the OPCW would reject and deny the very fact that the Spiez laboratory was engaged, it will be very interesting to listen to their explanations.
April 18
After OPCW leaks
Previous ACLOS discussion of BZ line

Treatment?

See also discussion comments

Treatment protocols do not necessarily include blood transfusions. Typically there is a need to raise AChE levels after both opioid and organophosphate poisoning --10:13, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

Location of attack?

Telegraph thinks the novichok may have come in a suitcase from Moscow
ABC News suspects the poison may have been placed in the vents of Scripal's BMW
Daily Star says maybe the poison was released from a mini drone

No one seems to know where, when and how the alleged attack happened. Teresa May claims that the agent has been identified, but the investigators still do not have a sample of the agent. If they had identified the location of the attack or the container used to transport the agent, they would most likely have a sample.

The officer has left hospital on March 22 and went home, according to the Wiltshire police who read a lengthy statement allegedly by Nick Bailey in which he gives no details whatsoever about what happened and asks the press to respect his and his family's privacy. Already while recovering in hospital he has done his best to respond to as many as possible of the 300 supporting messages he got from the general public, the statement reads.

Tracking movement

  • CCTV shows Sergei Skripal drive through Salisbury before poisoning - Daily Mail, March 15, 2018 (timed map inside).
    Police know Sergei Skripal parked on the first floor of Sainsbury's car park at 1.40pm. He and his daughter Yulia visited The Mill pub before arriving at Zizzi at 2.20pm, dining, and leaving at 3.35pm. They were potentially picked up on CCTV on Market Walk at 3.47pm before being found slumped on a bench at 4.15pm. The new footage shows Skripal driving past the Devizes Inn, which is equidistant from Sainsbury's to his home in Christie Miller Road, though it is not known where he had driven from nor when he was poisoned

Car

Phones

Police sources say both Skripals turned off their cell phones between their visit to the cemetery at 9:15 and 13:30 in town centre, two hours before they were found on the bench. Police suspects a clandestine meeting. Father Skripal has travelled to Dubai and Africa for "business meetings" while living in the UK, "raising the prospect he was selling information to criminals and foreign powers."

Container for poison?

So far the investigators have no idea how the alleged poison was transported to the supposed site of the poisoning. Speculations range from a suitcase from Moscow to a mini drone.

  • Vil Mirzayanov: "Novichok" can be synthesized or stolen, but few can apply it-BBC Russian, March 16, 2018
    BBC: Есть мужчина и женщина, против которых был направлен точечный маленький снаряд. Как и в чем в этом случае могут содержаться вещества, для того чтобы "Новичок" сработал? Это маленький патрон?
    VM, robot-translated: This is a small cartridge that is inserted - this I already fantasize - into a Nagant, a revolver, it has a device that breaks [the components], and there is a reaction between them. And then it shoots out, as it were, a diluent in the form of gasoline or carbon dioxide, usually from a spray, [in the form of] a spray. On such a principle such a weapon could be made, very simply ... Special precautions are not required, because hermetically enclosed substances, say, in an ampoule, are not dangerous.... You see, the mechanism in this shot device, it is available and from the spring can break both vials, both cartridges. The reaction goes on in seconds. And then it shoots.
    (A spray or dual spray gun? Apparent point is not murder, rather some harm + tainting with the agent. --Resup (talk) 06:12, 19 March 2018 (UTC)).

Door knob?

Investigation

  • Russian Embassy response We reiterate our demand to the British Government to ensure compliance with their international legal obligations and the universal rules of international relations, and to urgently provide the Russian side and the public with meaningful proof that Sergei and Yulia Skripal are not forcibly isolated.
  • The probe into the Salisbury spy poisoning is now one of the biggest counter-terrorism investigations ever launched in Britain. May 8 Mirror
  • Russian Embassy Response May 8, 2018 According to a Downing Street spokesman, more than 400 police officers including 250 counter-terrorism specialists have been involved in the inquiry, more than 5000 hours of CCTV and more than 1350 pieces of evidence have been collected, and around 500 witnesses have been identified.These impressive figures should not mislead. What they actually mean is that despite huge efforts the police have been unable to support the official political version of the incident with facts and proof. The immense work of the police turns out to be meaningless when they are expected not to establish the truth, but to follow the artificial script written by the Conservative government days after the attack.

Police

See also Talk:Poisoning_of_Sergei_Skripal#Ill_Policeman.3F, Death_of_Dawn_Sturgess#Coordinated_Response_to_Inquiry

Awards

Reflecting on the investigation, Supt Minty said the "strangeness of it" stuck in his mind....Speaking following the medal presentation on Wednesday, the officer said it was "nice to get back to my normal day job".

OPCW

On March 23 a judgement at the high court ruled that the OPCW is allowed to take blood samples of the ("heavily sedated, unable to communicate") Skripals. The judgement contains the first known direct statement of a(n unnamed) Porton Down analyst:

Blood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analysed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent or closely related agent.

In the ruling it says

The application came before me on 20 March 2018. It was made on an urgent basis. The OPCW wished to collect samples in the near future.

On March 19 the OPCW had been in Salisbury "to take a nerve agent sample" (local paper quoting Boris Johnson).

  • April 4 Update (ACLOS copy): OPCW experts visited the locations where two of the victims were reportedly exposed to a toxic chemical and collected several environmental samples. The team also took biomedical samples from these two victims, as well as from a third individual, a police officer reportedly exposed to a toxic chemical.
  • On April 12th the OPCW released a press statement and a summary report of their findings.
    They say that they "confirm the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical that was used in Salisbury and severely injured three people." The identity itself is only mentioned in the classified full report given to the UK and other State parties.
  • On 18th April OPCW denied BZ report (see also talk page). At the meeting, Russia's representative Alexandr Shulgin made a statement accusing the UK of being engaged in constant lying about the case and goes into a detailed refutation of eight British "lies".
The toxic chemical compound, which displays the toxic properties of a nerve agent, is the same toxic chemical that was found in the biomedical and environmental samples relating to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Mr Nicholas Bailey...
Due to the unknown storage conditions of the small bottle found in the house of Mr Rowley and the fact that the environmental samples analysed in relation to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Mr Nicholas Bailey were exposed to the environment and moisture, the impurity profiles of the samples available to the OPCW do not make it possible to draw conclusions as to whether the samples are from the same synthesis batch.
Medical and forensic sources believe it is impossible for there not to have been multiple blood samples for both Skripals – possibly as many as six in the first 24 hours after their hospital admission. The sources also believe it is impossible for MOD searches to have “failed to locate any information that provides the exact time that the samples were collected.”

Jan Masarlek

Three of the documents covered two deployments of OPCW specialists to Britain in April and July 2018, and described how samples of the chemical weapon were taken from the victims and distributed to secret OPCW labs. A fourth document seen by the FT was a presentation for a “Briefing to State Parties” held on 13 September 2018.

Ahmet Uzumcu

He would not confirm whether the UK already had samples of novichoks, which were originally developed by the Soviet Union, but said officials were able to identify the nerve agent used in Salisbury “in a very short space of time”. Mr Üzümcü said that if identification had been slower, the Skripals and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey – who have all been released from hospital – would not have been effectively treated. “All three main victims have survived and I think this proves the efficiency of British authorities,” he added. He was speaking following meetings with senior British government officials including foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan and defence minister Earl Howe,..

Seymour Hersh?

Legendary journalist Seymour Hersh on the truth behind novichok ... https://www.independent.co.uk/politics/seymour-hersh-interview-novichok-russian-hacking-9-11-nerve-agent-attack-a8459596.html July 27th 2018

I'm about to interview the 81-year-old doyenne of investigative journalism Seymour Hersh. Sy Hersh – as he is affectionately known by those close to him – was ... once described by the Financial Times as “the last great American reporter”. Hersh has brought out his ... Ghraib prison in the Iraq War to the attention of the world. Veteran journalist Seymour Hersh on ... .

Re-telling of the article in Russian does not indicate any insider knowledge, suggests that Skripal likely was talking to services about Russian organized crime ...Sloppiness indicates that organized crime, not state sponsorship may be involved

Noted: The Independent article appears withdrawn/cannot be found --Resup (talk) 10:43, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

There was a part missing in your link (/politics/). Fixed that but the article is indeed gone. But it was still in the google cache so I archived that version here. Layout is a bit messed up but seems to be readable. --CE (talk) 15:13, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
Meh, after skimming: What you wrote is the only thing about Novichok in the article. It ends, after Hersh expresses doubt about the official 9/11 CT, with the author pointing out that Hersh isn't a conspiracy theorist because he - unlike the author - buys the JFK magic bullet. Maybe a bit too far out for the average Independent reader, so they gave the order to pull it. ;o) --CE (talk) 15:29, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
The author says the article went up early accidentally and will be republished Wednesday. He already has the usual assorted slime calling him and Hersh conspiracy theorists, while he himself is calling people who wondered where the article went conspiracy theorists.... *rolleyes*. --CE (talk) 20:20, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
The link works again. Can't be bothered to check for any changes. --CE (talk) 12:24, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Russians charged (Petrov and Boshirov)

Moved to Petrov and Boshirov

UN

Videos, including:

DEFRA work on decontaminating hotspots

  • Novichok nerve agent use in Salisbury: UK government response
  • Clean-up work underway in Salisbury in next phase of recovery - Gov.UK, April 17, 2018
    Work to clean each site will involve a process of testing, removal of items which may have been contaminated, chemical cleaning and retesting. Sites will not be released back into use until test results and the work undertaken has been reviewed and approved by the government’s decontamination science assurance group.
    The work, which is expected to take a number of months, is being planned and overseen by Defra based on expert advice from Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Public Health England, Department for Health and Social Care, Home Office, and Ministry of Defence (MOD). The clean-up operation will be carried out in partnership with Wiltshire Council with support from the MOD, who are providing specialist teams to carry out work on the sites. Around 190 specialist military personnel from the Army and RAF will support the operation.
  • Russian Embassy Response-April 17th,2018 see also May 25th, 2018

We have carefully studied the DEFRA statement saying that decontamination of the nine allegedly contaminated sites in Salisbury has begun. We could not help but notice that the list of such places had considerably expanded. In addition to the previously mentioned "Zizzi" restaurant, the "Mill" pub, the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious and the house of Sergei Skripal now ambulance stations and the house of Sgt Nick Bailey are among them

  • Defra's chief scientific adviser Mr Boyd said: "We have to make an assumption that in certain circumstances there will be relatively high concentrations, probably in very, very specific locations, which could be at levels that could be toxic to individuals." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43833582
  • Salisbury's Bourne Hill offices (the new extension) home to Wiltshire Council services, and the police station, will close to staff and public from Friday 20 April for up to eight weeks as part of the decontamination plans announced yesterday.The decontamination work will focus on two locations in Bourne Hill which were sealed off following the incident on 4 March. These locations; the evidence store and two lockers are potentially contaminated and will require testing and the removal of items and cleaning. Update 20th April on Salisbury Recovery - Withsire Council
Decontamination started at the site on April 24, when the site was released by counter-terror police conducting an investigation into the nerve agent attack on Russian former-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.Chair of the recovery group Alastair Cunningham said the clean-up process would involve testing the sites for traces of the nerve agent Novichok, and caustic chemical cleaning, before re-testing to determine sites are safe. Salisbury Journal 21 May, 2018
That's because the timber work within the roof is more difficult to clean than other interior parts of the house.

Porton Down

See also Porton Down investigates Syria
"We have not identified the precise source, but we have provided the scientific info to government who have then used a number of other sources to piece together the conclusions you have come to." Sputnik 03 April, 2018

Exercise Toxic Dagger

Putin did it!

The UK Foreign Office blames Russia
  • Who, us? Russia is gaslighting the world on the Skripal poisonings Alexey Kovalev. The Guardian, May 25, 2018
  • Four MORE Russian suspects in Salisbury Novichok probe as part of six-strong assassination squad named The Cleaners -The Mirror, September 8, 2018
    An intelligence source said they used the identities of real prisoners in EU jails so that no visas were required. ...and how do they know those were 'Russians'? (Agents of the Russian state)? --Resup (talk) 00:12, 11 September 2018 (UTC)
  • Novichok Attack: Apollo... the agent groomed by MI6 -Express, September 9, 2018
    Well, no idea, whatever. If they really know, why not to say so officially, not some tabloid stuff like this (followed by punishment) Report maybe untrue, or that turncoat diplomat may be not telling the truth, or have a deal what to say. The story overall is weird, their whole case essentially hinges on a tabloid story about the agent Apollo...Why would some low-ranking embassy guy who can vanish without major ruckus really know who is or is not 'a military agent' (and other details of the operation, allegedly) ----Resup (talk) 16:21, 11 September 2018 (UTC)
    Noted, on 26 March, 2 Russian diplomats expulsion announced; early April: Apollo shows up. Russian consulate in Rome attache is unchanged for a while, at least since February 2017: Sergey Victorovich Chukhrov 1, 2
    Zakharova: "The Russian side has no information about this mysterious character, no one from our embassy in Rome has 'run away',"
  • Skripal poisoning: Putin says suspects 'civilians, not criminals'-BBC, September 12, 2018
  • Gina Haspel Relies on Spy Skills to Connect With Trump. He Doesn’t Always Listen -The New York Times, April 16, 2019
    Ms. Haspel showed pictures the British government had supplied her of young children hospitalized after being sickened by the Novichok nerve agent that poisoned the Skripals. She then showed a photograph of ducks that British officials said were inadvertently killed by the sloppy work of the Russian operatives.
    Mr. Trump fixated on the pictures of the sickened children and the dead ducks. At the end of the briefing, he embraced the strong option.
  • Spiegel, August , 2020, see also open-access summary by Liane Theuer, August 27, 2020 at 1:06 pm here
    Marc-Michael Blum: The signature of the substance used should still be found in samples of Navalny’s blood plasma. You have to pick a few telltale remnants of molecules out of a billion others. But it should be possible to do that with a powerful mass spectrometer in a good laboratory. This has been successfully demonstrated in poisoning cases in Syria as well as in the Skripal case.

... not

Israeli response

Czech Novichok production

  • Czech Military Research Institute director fired over Novichok scandal Dilyana Gaytandzhieva May 15, 2018 In March when Moscow said the Novichok nerve agent allegedly used against the Skripals may have originated in the Czech Republic , Safar confirmed that poisonous substances were produced in the Czech Republic solely for laboratory purposes to test their properties and in a very small amount of some grams only.

Russia's response

  • Update 3 May 2018 We also get the impression that the British government is deliberately destroying the evidence, classifying all remaining materials and making independent investigation impossible. Sergei Skripal’s pets were incinerated without having been tested for exposure to nerve agents. Then a decontamination of the area was announced, which reportedly included destruction of potentially contaminated objects along with Sergei Skripal’s house, the “Mill” pub and the “Zizzi” restaurant.

US response

  • 'Trump Weighs Expulsion of Russian Envoys Over U.K. Attack' -Bloomberg News, March 24, 2018
    (Well, hopefully not, Russia's guilt is at least not established, and likely it is done by enemies of Russia, or enemies of Putin, not by Russia or by Putin. --Resup (talk) 16:38, 24 March 2018 (UTC))
  • Kurt Volker commented on Petrov and Boshirov interview - unn.com.ua, September 15, 2018
    Kurt Volker: I am very glad that Russia has not lost its sense of humor. *: Curious comment, is he saying that Western services know for sure that Petrov and Boshirov are not the real names (for example), or something else which is indisputably false? --Resup (talk) 22:11, 15 September 2018 (UTC)

Sanctions

D Notices

The below article discussing Pablo Miller appeared in Russian media on 6th March, the day before the DSMA on Skripal's associations

Attack Russia now!

Theresa May accuses Russia
The Anglo-Russian war of 2018
  • UK 'could send more troops and jets to Russia's border' after ex-spy poisoned - Mirror, March 9, 2018
  • Theresa May 'to announce on Monday' what sanctions she will take against Russia - The Telegraph, March 9, 2018
    The Prime Minister is expecting to receive confirmation from the Ministry of Defence’s Porton Down laboratory over the weekend that Russia was, beyond reasonable doubt, the source of the nerve agent used in the attempted murder of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
    ...last Sunday’s attack, which also left Det Serg Nick Bailey in hospital after he visited Mr Skripal’s house.
    Noted: (1) for the 'beyond doubt', they need to have a matching sample's 'signature' from a Russian stockpile, and that's not likely; (2) for 'expecting to receive', it needs to be received (draft form/summary/etc.) (3)the article is written by political editors, and placed in politics section--Resup (talk)19:46, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
  • Theresa May threatens military and economic retaliation against Russia if Vladimir Putin is proven to be behind poisoned spy attack - The Sun, March 10, 2018
    Military scientists at Porton Down expect to be able to soon say beyond any doubt that the rare poison was devised in the SVR Russian foreign spy service’s notorious Yasenevo labs in Moscow.
    One senior minister told The Sun: “We are in a new Cold War with Russia that is beginning to get hot. “This is all about debilitating the West, so we have to reverse the psychology and make Putin look weak.”
    Noted: all info on Yasenevo is from Soviet era, with information leaked to the West following USSR collapse. Nobody has a real clue what's going on there now. How and why one can predict what a truly scientific investigation unbiased by politics will show, before it is completed? How can they determine it is Russian chemicals, and not say Ukrainian, Western, or Middle Eastern, without (most likely) having Russian and others' samples? Even if the report does show what's predicted, it should be open to scientific scrutiny (as opposed to politically driven propaganda in media, forcing hand of the government)--Resup (talk) 06:21, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
  • Australia, Poland and Japan could join England in World Cup boycott - Daily Mail, March 10, 2018
    Mr Tugendhat said ministers should urge allies to join a coordinated boycott of the World Cup, as part of a wider package of reprisals against the Putin regime.
  • Мэй обвинила Россию в причастности к отравлению экс-полковника ГРУ Скрипаля и его дочери - TASS, March 12, 2018
    "Today the Foreign Minister [of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson] called the Russian ambassador and demanded from him that Russia provide a full report and a full disclosure of the program of nerve agents "Novice" (=???) to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, "said May," He also asked for an answer until the end of tomorrow. "
  • Russian spy: Highly likely Moscow behind attack, says Theresa May - BBC, March 12, 2018
    "Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom."
    Mrs May told MPs the positive identification of this chemical agent (Novichok/Novice) was made by experts at the UK's Porton Down laboratory. She said Russia has previously produced the agent and would still be capable of doing so.
  • MPs call for Kremlin-funded Russia Today to be taken off air - Daily Mail, March 12, 2018
  • Tillerson: Ex-spy's poisoning 'clearly came from Russia - The Hill, March 12, 2018
    “From Ukraine to Syria — and now the United Kingdom — Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens,” Tillerson said.
  • Rex Tillerson says Russia is 'clearly' behind spy poisoning and 'must face serious consequences' - Evening Standard, March 12, 2018
  • Ex-spy Skripal poisoning 'clearly came from Russia' & 'will trigger response' – Tillerson - RT, March 12, 2018
  • 13 March, 2018. RAF ZH106 (aka Magic81, an AWACS; video of) is reported over Poland, said to be rare. US AF RQ-4 over Ukraine (said to be not rare).
  • Russian spy: UK government response going to plan so far - John Pienaar, BBC News, March 16, 2018
    Among senior ministers and officials, there's quiet satisfaction that the Russia crisis seems to be going according to plan. Maybe even better. According to one senior government source, "it's gone at least as well as we'd hoped".
  • U.S. says to impose new sanctions on Russia for nerve attack in UK -Reuters, August 8, 2018
    TASS quoting ' a high ranking State Dept representative, in robot translation to English: "We intend to impose sanctions on the Russian Federation in a number of areas, the most significant of which is the presumption of refusal concerning the supply [to Moscow] of all sensitive goods and technologies of national security that is controlled by the US Department of Commerce in accordance with the export control rules. At the present time, the issuance of licenses for the supply of these goods is considered in each individual case, and now, after the entry into force of sanctions, we will proceed from the (assumption of) refusal of permission of such supplies".
    (Noted: this will further poison relations; perhaps create nuisances in some areas, but less so then in Soviet days; will boost Russian double use and military R&D. --Resup (talk) 23:37, 8 August 2018 (UTC) )
  • New “draconian” sanctions against Russia-Russian Embassy, USA, August 8, 2018
    The American side refused to answer our follow-up questions, claiming that the information is classified. However, we were told that the US has enough intel to conclude that «Russia is to blame”... We confirmed that we continue to strongly stand for an open and transparent investigation of the crime committed in Salisbury and for bringing the culprits to justice. We suggested publishing our correspondence on this issue. No answer has followed so far.

Syria connection

Charles Shoebridge believes that British MI6 knew of the false-flag Douma gas attack before it happened
Donbass did Skripal?
See also U.S. missile strike on Syria (2018)‎

Licence to kill

Analysis

Julian Röpke believes not
Sergei Skripal’s home and a house belonging to a police officer poisoned in the Salisbury nerve agent attack will be bought by taxpayers in a £1m deal that also includes cars and other family possessions. [...] officials said Skripal’s home is expected to be bought by the government for about £350,000. Wiltshire police are expected to pay Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who became ill after he went to the aid of the Skripals on March 4, for his family home. The house is likely to cost about £430,000.
-> June 28, Russian UK Embassy asks for clarification

Documentaries

Amesbury Incident

Moved to Death of Dawn Sturgess

Subsequent events

Navalny Gets Skripaled

Moved to Alleged_poisoning_of_Alexei_Navalny
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