Sergei Skripal Was Retired, but Still in the Spy Game. Is That Why He Was Poisoned?

[Macallik86]

Curious to hear everyone's thoughts on this since it was buried in the current news cycle.

Russia is still the devil and fukking up the world globally FYI, but a spy-turned-turncoat that was convicted of being a traitor and then freed in a deal with the US only to go back to selling Russia secrets to the West definitely seems like a reason for someone to get touched.

Morally he shouldn't be killed, but I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't want an American purposefully selling classified secrets (that put American intelligence agents at risk) to be permanently silenced.

The aging Russian spy had been a free man for only a few years when he turned up in Prague for a secret meeting with his former adversaries. He looked ill, but acted jovial, drinking with his Czech hosts and joking that his doctor had prescribed whiskey for high blood pressure.

Then he got down to business, rattling off information about Russian spycraft and the activities of former colleagues that might give the Czechs an edge over their foes.

This was Sergei V. Skripal, the former Russian spy who along with his daughter was nearly poisoned to death with a rare and toxic nerve agent10 weeks ago, touching off a furious confrontation between Russia and the West that has played out like a Cold War thriller and led to the expulsion of more than 150 Russian diplomats from more than two dozen countries.

The British authorities have accused Russia of trying to assassinate Mr. Skripal, a charge the Russians angrily deny. One of Britain’s highest ranking spymasters, the MI5 chief, Andrew Parker, lambasted Russia on Monday in a speech to security chiefs in Berlin, accusing the Kremlin of “barefaced lying” and “criminal thuggery,” and warning Russia that it risked becoming a “more isolated pariah.”

Britain has suggested that the Kremlin staged its attack to send the message that it would never forget or forgive any traitor. To buttress their case, the British authorities have portrayed Mr. Skripal as a symbolic victim who was living quietly in semiretirement in Salisbury, England, after being swapped in a high-profile spy exchange in 2010.

But in the years before the poisoning, Mr. Skripal, a veteran of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the G.R.U., apparently traveled widely, offering briefings on Russia to foreign intelligence operatives, according to European officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. The meetings were almost certainly approved and possibly facilitated by the British authorities as a way to both educate their allies and provide Mr. Skripal with income.

He met with Czech intelligence officials on several occasions and visited Estonia in 2016 to meet with local spies.
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Full article can be read here

 

[GnauzBookOfRhymes]

I think it was the manner of assassination that was the real issue. Using chemical weapons is a bit unNERVING

 

[Hood Critic]

I think it was the manner of assassination that was the real issue. Using chemical weapons is a bit unNERVING

I agree, we disavow our own spies when they get caught up so we would have no issues overlooking someone else's. But a throw something against the wall to see what sticks type assisnation draws too much attention.