Eye Spy - May 2018

EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 115 2018 37

The widow of poisoned former Russian spy

Alexander Litvinenko criticised Labour

leader Jeremy Corbyn for his failure to con-

demn Vladimir Putin. In addition she said

lessons hadn’t been learned.

“I think something more should be done,

it’s not enough,” Marina said. “Even though

(the reaction) is stronger than it was in [the]

case of my husband, it is still not enough.

“For all the people in UK it was a shock.

We were promised after the public inquiry

that it would not happen again. It was diffi-

cult to see what happened to Sergei

Skripal.”

network Russia Today, was found dead in

Washington DC in 2012. US authorities have

said his death was the result of a drunken fall,

but some FBI agents reportedly believe he was

beaten to death.

Lesin and President Putin

LESSONS NOT LEARNED?

© LYNNE FEATHERSTONE

Marina Litvinenko (right) at the

Foreign Office

LITVINENKO II

FOURTEEN DAYS

3 MARCH 2018

2.40pm. Sergei Skripal’s daughter Yulia, 33,

(below) arrives at Heathrow Airport on a flight

from Russia.

4 MARCH 2018

1.40pm. Mr Skripal and his daughter arrive at

Sainsbury’s supermarket upper-level car park

in Salisbury town centre. At 2.20pm they

enjoy a drink at the Bishop’s Mill public house

before going to the Zizzi restaurant. They

remain here until 3.35pm.

At around the same time a CCTV camera

captured ‘two people of interest’, including a

woman a carrying a red handbag.

At 4.15pm, an eyewitness said she saw a

man and a woman looking unwell on a bench.

Medics attend and the two people are taken to

Salisbury District Hospital.

Salisbury District

Hospital

8 MARCH

Home Secretary Amber Rudd visits police in

Salisbury and said that the use of a nerve

agent on UK soil was a “brazen and reckless

act of attempted murder in the most cruel and

public way.”

She later chairs a meeting of the National

Security Council and Prime Minister Theresa

May calls a meeting of the Government’s

emergency response coordination unit

COBRA. In attendance, MI6 Chief Alex Younger

and MI5 Director-General Andrew Parker.

Chief UK Medical Officer Dame Sally

Davies and Mark Rowley issue

statements on the Salisbury incident

Sergeant Nick Bailey was released

from hospital on 21 March

5 MARCH

Wiltshire Police declare a major incident.

Doctors are baffled by the Skripals symptoms

and have no idea what substance they’ve been

exposed to. Senior MI5 and New Scotland

Yard detectives arrive to assist colleagues,

along with scientists from PHE’s Centre for

Radiation, Chemical and Environmental

Hazards. Some 250 military and counter-

terrorism officers arrive, many skilled in

chemical weapons training and are deployed

in the city and surrounding areas. Various

known locations visited by the Skripals are

cordoned off and secured.

The evidence points to a criminal act, leading

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to state:

“Britain will respond appropriately and robustly

if evidence emerges of Russia’s involvement

in Skripal’s suspected poisoning.” His

reference to ‘Russia’ leaves no one in doubt

about the serious circumstances of the case.

7 MARCH

New Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner

Mark Rowley, the outgoing head of national

counter-terror policing, reveals that Sergei and

Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent. He

also said that a police officer - Sergeant Nick

Bailey - was infected. Early reports state he

was one of the first officers to attend the

scene at the bench, others said he fell ill after

visiting Mr Skripal’s house in the city.