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Sergei Skripal, 68, is a former Russian military intelligence officer who once acted as a double agent for the UK. He spent a month in a critical condition after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent and spent time at Salisbury District Hospital. Express.co.uk has everything you need to know about where the Russian double agent is now.
Where is Sergei Skripal now?
The story of the Salisbury Poisonings dominated headlines across the world back in March 2018, and BBC One has now created a dramatisation of the events.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting from Moscow, were left in a critical condition with the poisoning being investigated as attempted murder.
On March 29, 25 days after the incident, Yulia was conscious and talking and a week later Skripal was considered to be out of a critical condition.
Skripal, who was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service and later convicted of high treason in 2004, was discharged from hospital on May 18.
According to The Times, senior government sources say he and his daughter “have begun a new life in New Zealand”.
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The pair had spent a year living in an MI6 safe house but they have made the brave decision to start afresh.
The father and daughter have been given new identities and the help they need to start a new life following a risk assessment.
They had both been found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury after a deadly chemical was smeared on the door handle of Skripal’s home.
Yulia was first to join security services at a secret location following her stay in hospital and she was later joined by her father.
The Times article says it is unlikely the pair will ever appear in the public eye again, however, Skripal keeps in touch with his old neighbours – Ross and Mo Cassidy.
Mr Casssidy said in an interview: “It’s nice to know they are thinking of us but I don’t expect we will ever see them again.”
On September 5, 2018, British authorities released details about two Russian nationals suspected of the poisoning.
The men, who went by the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, were the main suspects who were understood to have arrived at Gatwick Airport on March 2.
They have not been arrested and prosecutors have not applied for the men to extradited from Russia, but a European Arrest Warrant has been obtained if the men ever travel to EU countries.
Skripal had been living under his own name and his neighbours had wondered why he was not given a pseudonym. The Home Office said it did not comment on intelligence matters.
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Back in March 2020 the father and daughter had said they were desperate to start a new life in either Australia or New Zealand.
The Daily Mail reported at the time the pair had already travelled to Australia to scout out possible new homes.
British chemical weapons expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said: “I’m sure Yulia especially will want to return to some sort of normality and a remote Commonwealth country may be an option.
“The Government continues to have a duty of care and the Russians seem unconcerned with any collateral damage they caused around this assassination attempt. So security arrangements would in all certainty continue.”
More than two years after the incident happened it still remains a mystery as to why two men were sent to target Skripal.
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Skripal had been released from prison in July 2010 along with three other Russian nationals, and he moved to Salisbury in Wilshire in 2011.
In 2018 the New York Times reported Skripal was retired but he was still somewhat “in the game”, providing information to UK intelligence services.
The new BBC One drama series tells the story of how the local community reacted to the unprecedented case.
The Novichok attack also claimed Dawn Sturgess, 44, as a victim after she handled a perfume bottle containing the same poison.
BBC One said: “In March 2018 Salisbury became the site of an unprecedented national emergency. This three-part dramatisation focuses on the extraordinary heroism shown by the local community.”
The Salisbury Poisonings airs on BBC One on Sunday at 9pm
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