Proving the Russian President Vladimir Putin remains true to his KGB roots, another former Russian intelligence agent remains in critical condition in a Salisbury hospital, poisoned March 6 by unidentified Russian agents. With Russia’s Federal Security Service [FSB], successor to the KGB, fingerprints on 66-year-old former double-agen Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yullia, Scotland Yard has worked day-and-night to determine the exact form of poisoning. It wasn’t that long ago when former KGB agent Alexander Litvinencko was poisoned by Russian agents Nov. 1, 2006, dying of Polonium-210 poisoning, something traced to a Russian nuclear facility. While denied by Putin, British authorities had no doubt who’s responsible. Showing the KGB learns quickly, it copied the Feb. 13, 2017 VX-poisoning of Kim Jong-un’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s International Airport.
With so many Russian agents in the U.K., it’s difficult for authorities to stop targeted assassinations with clever agents. London’s Scotland Yard found the deadly VX-never agent in Skripal, his daughter and at least two other bystanders’ blood. What troubles British authorities is how Russian agents violate U.K. sovereignty to murder former double-agents. Skripal, a former GSU colonel, was on the FSB hit-list after betraying in comrades, until deported from a Russian jail to the U.K. in prisoner swap in 2010. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said today the Kremlin was behind the Skripal’s VX-nerve agent poisoning, prompting more harsh denials by Russian officials. Russian officials called Johnson’s accusations “wild” speculation, before completing any investigation. But with the past history of FSB targeted assassinations on British soil, it’s not so farfetched.
Russia’s propaganda flows freely like it did during the height of the Cold War with the old Soviet Union. Instead of admitting the obvious, Russian’s state run media continues to spew more disinformation. “It’s very hard not to assess this [speculation] as provocative black PRI designed to complicate relations between our two countries,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow. Nerve agent expert at the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, Prof. Malcolm Sperrin seemed dumbfounded. “I’m not aware of a nerve agent having been used in this way previously,” said Sperrin. Sperrin forgets the Feb. 13, 2017 poisoning death of Kim Jong-un’s half-brother. British authorities recall well Litvinenko’s 2006 Polonium-210 poisoning, something also denied by the Kremlin but unquestionably linked to Putin.
Another Russian poisoning on British soil turns back the clock on British-Russian relations. When you consider the alleged meddling by Russia in the 2016 election and other place around the globe, not to mention the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and Russian border encroachment in other places in Ukraine, Putin has been alienating whomever he had left of his Western partners. Hoping that U.S. President Donald Trump was still sympathetic, the latest poisoning case in the U.K. makes normalization of relations more difficult. “We’ve got to respond more effectively than we di last time over Litvinenko “Our response then clearly wasn’t strong enough,” said former British Defense Minister Michael Fallon. “We need to deter Russia from believing the can get away with attack like this on our streets it’s proved,” yet knowing how difficult it is to stop targeted assassinations.
Whether targeted assassinations, political meddling or territorial incursions, the U.S., European Union and U.K. need get a grip on the Kremlin’s short-and-long-range plans to confront the West. Skripal’s case shows the extent of Russian infiltration into the U.K., capable of acting on the Kremlin’s orders. British authorities have combed the area in Salisbury where Skripal and his daughter dined at a Pizzeria and had a drink in a local pub. When you consider the damage done to U.S. politicians from talking to former Washington-based Russian Amb Sergey Kislyak in the 2016 election, it’s know wonder Russian hysteria has swept Capitol Hill. Whether anything comes of the Russian meddling and collusion investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is anyone’s guess. What known for sure in the U.K. is that the FSB targets for assassination former Russian double-agents at will.
How and in what way the U.K. plans to get tough with Moscow is anyone’s guess. Since exiting the EU, London has a lot less clout, since Russia doesn’t want to mess with its current energy sales to the EU. Working with the U.S., British Prime Minister Theresa May has the best chance to restrain Moscow from more shenanigans. With the U.S. poised to apply more sanctions to Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Putin will look to anywhere for sanctions relief. Putin’s best way to redeem himself—if there’s any chance at all—is to prevail on North Korea to disarm its nuke and ballistic missiles. But should that be too late, showing restraint after a U.S. military strike on Pyongyang would be welcomed. Russian operatives work 24/7 on messing with Western nations, something so commonplace it’s clear Putin has no real way to stop it.
