CONFOUNDING doctors, scientists, politicians and spies alike, former double agent Sergei Skripal was yesterday discharged from hospital, and is now with his daughter Yulia in a secure location.
They were poisoned on March 4 in Salisbury, and the first police officer to help them, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, was also affected by what the UK Government has stated was a Novichok nerve agent devised in the Soviet Union era and used on this occasion by Russia, an assertion which presaged a huge round of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats and spies by the UK’s allies and Russia.
Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday repeated his question to those who say his country is behind the attack – if poisoned by a weapons-grade nerve agent, why are the Skripals not dead?
Speaking alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel in Sochi, Putin said: “We wish him a good recovery. Firstly, I believe that, if, as our Brit colleagues claim, that if it really had been a nerve agent, then he would have died immediately.
“A weapons-grade nerve agent is so strong that a person dies immediately or within a few minutes. Thank God, he is getting better.”
Salisbury district hospital announced that Sergei Skripal had been discharged and chief executive Cara Charles-Barks said: “That [Sergei], Yulia and DS Nick Bailey have been able to leave us so soon after coming into contact with this nerve agent is thanks to the hard work, skill and professionalism of our clinicians, who provide outstanding care to all our patients, day in and day out.
“This has been a difficult time for those caught up in this incident: the patients, our staff and the people of Salisbury. I want to thank the public for their support”
Russia’s ambassador to the UK has again demanded to see the Skripals, but that request has been denied. A police spokesman said: “This is a complex investigation and detectives continue to gather and piece together all the evidence to establish the full facts and circumstances behind this dreadful attack. In the Skripals’ interests we will not be discussing any protective or security arrangements that are in place.”
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