FT learned about Sergey Skripal's work for Western special services after emigration

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MOSCOW, March 9 (Itar-Tass) - RIA Novosti. Former colonel of the GRU reserve, Sergei Skripal, poisoned a few days ago in the UK, after an exchange, cooperated with Western special services, the Financial Times reported citing sources.

According to a former high-ranking official of the special services, whose name is not named, Skripal, after his move to the UK, supplied information to intelligence services of Western countries. The interlocutor of the publication noted that in this capacity the ex-colonel was useful for a short time.

Another source discovered what information Scripal could provide to Western intelligence agencies.

"This concerns what the priorities of the Russians were, how they are being deployed to the West, how they are recruiting, how to conduct counterintelligence," he said.

Another interlocutor of the Financial Times noted that the use of former agents like Skripal in training scouts is not unusual, as in the fact that the information obtained from them is used in the work of defense and intelligence agencies.

The daughter of Skripal, Julia, stated that he "lectured", but did not say where. This is in good agreement with the assumption that the former GRU officer occasionally spoke to the British military and scouts, the publication notes.

The Wiltshire County police reported on March 5 that two people are in critical condition due to poisoning with an unknown substance. Scotland Yard on Wednesday said that an "attempt was made to kill using a nerve agent." Neither the police, Interior Minister Amber Rudd nor Premier Theresa May, speaking of the victims, have ever named the names of Skripal and his daughter. Until now, the only official person who named their names was Foreign Minister Boris Johnson.

The violin was sheltered in Britain after an intelligence exchange between Russia and the United States in 2010, when 10 people were transferred to Moscow, including Anna Chapman.

Link: https://ria.ru/world/20180309/1516047894.html