UK - Sergei, 66, & Yulia Skripal, 33, poisoned, Salisbury, 4 March 2018

[dotr]

Bulgaria to investigate third suspect in UK ex-spy poisoning
Feb 10 2019
"The hearing follows a report by the investigative group Bellingcat, which says an alleged Russian GRU military intelligence agent arrived in Bulgaria in April 2015, just a few days before Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev was poisoned by an unidentified substance. Gebrev, a key executive in the country's arms industry, survived the attack, but authorities still don't know who poisoned him.

Bellingcat said on its website that the 45-year-old agent, who travelled under the alias Sergei Vyacheslavovich Fedotov, had been “conclusively identified as an agent of Russian military intelligence,” or GRU.

Bellingcat said Fedotov is also suspected of being involved in the Novichok nerve-agent poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury in March 2018, having arrived in Britain two days before the attack. Both Skripals survived but spent weeks in the hospital and are now at an undisclosed location for their own safety."

 

[Legally Bland]

Salisbury has been declared safe of the nerve agent Novichok almost a year after the Sergei Skripal poisoning.

The former Russian spy's house and 11 other potentially infected sites were ruled safe on Friday.

Military personnel have spent 13,000 hours on the clean-up after Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were targeted with the nerve agent on 4 March 2018.

Army Lt Gen Ty Urch said it had been "the longest running" operation of its kind on British soil.

An estimated 600 to 800 specially trained military personnel, including the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear regiment, were involved in the clean-up.

Salisbury declared free of Novichok

 

[Legally Bland]

Man poisoned after novichok attack meets Russian ambassador

“I went along to ask them: ‘Why did your country kill my girlfriend?’ but I didn’t really get any answers,” Rowley said. “I liked the ambassador but I thought some of what he said trying to justify Russia not being responsible was ridiculous. I’m glad I met him and feel I did find out some things I didn’t know before. But I still think Russia carried out the attack.”

The 45-year-old, who continues to suffer from the long-term effects of exposure to novichok, said he had asked the ambassador “more than a dozen questions in all”, including asking him about his claims that Britain was behind the attack.

Yakovenko was said to have told him the substance used did not come from Russia and that the country had only small amounts of novichok.

Yakovenko told the Sunday Mirror that he and Rowley were “on the same page” and wanted to see a report on the investigation published.

“It is important for Russia, but also for Charlie Rowley,” he said. “I’ve seen a normal person who has really suffered a lot and who has suffered a tragedy in his life. If he asked for it, I would give him support.”

 

[Legally Bland]

I had no idea that ambulance crews carried anti nerve agent drugs.
________________

When they were called again to the same flat later that day to tend to Rowley, a lead paramedic who had been present when the Skripals fell ill suspected that nerve agent was again involved. Rowley was given an anti-nerve agent drug that British crews began to carry at the height of the al-Qaida threat but had not used until then.

Rowley survived, though he continues to suffer physically and mentally. Sturgess, a mother of three, died.

Darch said the first call to Rowley’s flat following Sturgess’s collapse came at 10.15am and the response was relatively straightforward. There was nothing that made the paramedics think that it could have been a second novichok poisoning.

When a second 999 call came through at 6.20pm for the same address, the control room flagged this up to the local commander. “It’s unusual that we would get called to the same address on the same day for two separate patients,” said Darch. By chance, the commander was one of those that had helped the Skripals. He attended Rowley’s address in person.

“The crew that attended Charlie took a particular course of treatment,” said Darch. “When that wasn’t effective, they suspected that it may be nerve agent.”

Though there was no information or intelligence that Rowley had been the victim of a nerve agent, the paramedics donned protective clothing – Tyvek suits, face masks, gloves and aprons – and treated Rowley as if there had been a second attack. Darch said: “They did a fantastic job under difficult circumstances and undoubtedly saved Charlie’s life.”

After the two sets of poisonings, SWASFT leaders coordinated a huge mapping exercise to pinpoint people, buildings and vehicles that could have been contaminated. Eight of the 10 vehicles used in the two incidents by 18 staff members have been destroyed and two ambulance stations were temporarily closed. Wiltshire air ambulance was twice grounded.

Revealed: anti-nerve agent drug was used for first time in UK to save novichok victim



(SWASFT = South Western Ambulance Service NHS foundation trust)

 

[dotr]

British police scour sections of Salisbury and Amesbury in southwest England, searching for a container feared to be contaminated with traces of the deadly nerve agent Novichok. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Aug 15 2019 rbbm.
UK police say second officer was poisoned in Novichok attack
"LONDON - British police say a second police officer who responded to a March 2018 nerve agent attack in the English city of Salisbury was exposed to the agent Novichock."

"The Metropolitan Police force said Thursday that another officer showed signs at the time of having been exposed to a “very small amount” of Novichok, and that tests had now confirmed it."

 

[dotr]

Nov 18 2019
This is what is being filmed in Bristol city centre today
"Film crews for a new BBC drama have been spotted in Bristol city centre this morning (November 18).

Crews have taken over much of Castle Park during filming for the new drama, Salisbury.

Ambulances, forensic teams and police cars have descended on the park as crew members cordoned off an area with police tape.

The three-part drama will explore the impact of the Novichok poisonings in 2018."

 

[dotr]

Nov 18 2019
This is what is being filmed in Bristol city centre today
"Film crews for a new BBC drama have been spotted in Bristol city centre this morning (November 18).

Crews have taken over much of Castle Park during filming for the new drama, Salisbury.

Ambulances, forensic teams and police cars have descended on the park as crew members cordoned off an area with police tape.

The three-part drama will explore the impact of the Novichok poisonings in 2018."
PHOTOS..
In pictures: Filming for Salisbury in Bristol

 

[dotr]

More Novichok news..
Sept 2 2020
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/germany-russia-navalny-novichok-1.5690392
''Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics, fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on Aug. 20 and was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing.

He was later transferred to Berlin's Charite hospital, where doctors last week said there were indications that he had been poisoned.

British authorities identified Novichok as the substance used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. It is a cholinesterase inhibitor, part of the class of substances that doctors at the Charite initially identified in Navalny.''

 

[dotr]

March 2 2021 rbbm.
US and EU punish Russians for Navalny poisoning - Netherlands News Live
''The Biden government released a report today that again concludes that the Russian security agency FSB was behind the poisoning. “FSB officers used the nerve poison novichok to poison Navalny on August 20, 2020,” said a US government official.''

''The US sanctions have been imposed in close consultation with the European Union. The EU already announced punitive measures against four Russians last week. Who they were was not disclosed at the time, in order to prevent them from removing their assets from Europe or taking other precautions.''

''It is now clear that it concerns the Russian Attorney General, the head of the committee that investigates major criminal cases, the head of the prison system and the head of the national guard. These four have been banned from travel by the EU and their bank balances in Europe have been frozen. Also, Europeans are no longer allowed to lend them or do business with them in any other way.''

 

[dotr]

Salisbury poisoning agents 'linked to Czech blast'
"There is a reasonable suspicion that Russian secret agents of the GRU service were involved in the 2014 explosions of an ammunition dump in the Czech village of Vrbětice," he said.

At the same time, police issued a request for assistance in searching for two individuals who it said were in the country between 11 October and 16 October 2014, first in Prague and then the area where the arms depot is located.

Czech police are looking for suspects using the identities Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov in connection with the explosion.

These are the same names used by two Russian intelligence officers the UK says carried out the poisoning in Salisbury, Wiltshire in 2018.''

image copyrightMetropolitan Police
image captionTwo suspects pictured on CCTV at Salisbury train station, England, in March 2018
Pictures of them issued by Czech police match those put out by UK police.

''After Salisbury, the two men were identified as Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga and subsequently appeared on Russian TV to claim they were sports nutritionists who had visited Salisbury to see the cathedral spire.

However, UK authorities said they were members of the GRU and had smeared a nerve agent, Novichok, on a door handle belonging to Mr Skripal, a former GRU officer.''

 

[Angleterre]

I have become extremely interested in Russia and Russian Corruption after reading the book ‘Red Letter’ by Bill Browder
I have delved into the abyss of all the linked deaths on British soil that have been passed off as non suspicious, purely to stop there being further confrontation with Putin and the West. There are around 15 deaths that have now occurred and are believed to be as a result of Russian interference and could be said to be murder on British soil . I suggest anybody who wants to know more about this, read up on it via the following books :

From Russia with Blood
Shadow State

 

[dotr]

I have become extremely interested in Russia and Russian Corruption after reading the book ‘Red Letter’ by Bill Browder
I have delved into the abyss of all the linked deaths on British soil that have been passed off as non suspicious, purely to stop there being further confrontation with Putin and the West. There are around 15 deaths that have now occurred and are believed to be as a result of Russian interference and could be said to be murder on British soil . I suggest anybody who wants to know more about this, read up on it via the following books :

From Russia with Blood
Shadow State

Intriguing!
Why the U.K. Failed to Investigate Russia-Linked Assassinations on Its Soil
November 12, 2019 rbbm.
''Over the course of a two-year investigation, BuzzFeed News discovered that Young was one of 14 people whom U.S. intelligence officials suspected were assassinated on British soil by Russia’s security services or mafia groups. The list includes Boris Berezovsky, an exiled Russian oligarch, who was found hanged in his flat in 2013 and eight members of his inner circle. But the British government intelligence passed on by its closest ally, Blake says, and did not treat the 14 deaths as suspicious.''

''These deaths are about more than eliminating an individual. What message is Russia trying to send?
These deaths are part of Russia’s propaganda operation—they aim to show the muscle of the Russian state and warn anyone considering betraying the motherland that if you cross Putin, there’s no safe place for you, the long arm of the Russian state can reach you anywhere.

But they’re also about telling Western governments not to tangle with Russia. The attempted assassination of the Skripals is a case in point. Novichok is a highly conspicuous Russian poison, which was developed by the Soviets and is known to Western intelligence as originating in Russia. That attack was a message with a very clear return address.''

BuzzFeed News

 

[dotr]

Apologies for so many posts, but had to mention that reading the above^ book has been eye-opening, also interesting, imo, is this article...
How Bellingcat Unmasked Putin’s Assassins
March 31 2021
“I’d like to live in a world in which we’d never have to write about Russia again,” Higgins told me. “But it’s not like we can just ignore something like a secret nerve-agent program.”

 

[dotr]

Sept 21 2021 rbbm.
UK police charge 3rd Russian in poisoning of ex-spy
''LONDON (AP) -- British police said Tuesday they are charging a third Russian suspect in the 2018 nerve agent attack on a former Russian agent in England.''

''Police said Tuesday they have evidence that the third suspect, "Sergey Fedotov" is an alias for Denis Sergeev, a member of the Russian military intelligence service known as the GRU.

Arrest warrants have been issued for all three men. Police said they will apply for Interpol notices for Fedotov on Tuesday.

Police said the three suspects had previously worked together for the GRU "as part of operations outside of Russia."

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, who has been leading the investigation, said the case has been one of the most complex ever undertaken by the counter-terror team. He appealed for anyone who had seen the three men in the U.K. in March 2018 to come forward.

"Whilst public attention gradually moved away from what happened in Salisbury and Amesbury, the investigation team has remained absolutely focused, meticulously poring over the evidence and building our case," he said in a statement.''

Denis Sergeev: Who is the ‘third man’ wanted over Salisbury poisonings?
''Further details of his life and career have previously been revealed by the investigative website Bellingcat, but not confirmed by authorities.
Bellingcat reported that Sergeev held the rank of major-general at the time of the attack, which is senior to two other GRU agents previously named as suspects.''

''The first use of his alias Sergey Fedotov, has been dated to 2010, when a passport was issued in that name by the same office that issued cover documents to other agents involved in the Salisbury attack.

Sergeev arrived in the UK days before the Salisbury poisoning
(Met Police)
What was his role in the attack?
''Sergeev flew from Moscow to Heathrow Airport on 2 March 2018, arriving around four hours before his colleagues, and stayed at a hotel in Paddington for two nights.

British counter-terror police said Sergeev met the two agents who then travelled to Salisbury “on more than one occasion” over the weekend of the attack, but that no traces of novichok were found at his hotel''.

 

[Angleterre]

Sept 21 2021 rbbm.
UK police charge 3rd Russian in poisoning of ex-spy
''LONDON (AP) -- British police said Tuesday they are charging a third Russian suspect in the 2018 nerve agent attack on a former Russian agent in England.''

''Police said Tuesday they have evidence that the third suspect, "Sergey Fedotov" is an alias for Denis Sergeev, a member of the Russian military intelligence service known as the GRU.

Arrest warrants have been issued for all three men. Police said they will apply for Interpol notices for Fedotov on Tuesday.

Police said the three suspects had previously worked together for the GRU "as part of operations outside of Russia."

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, who has been leading the investigation, said the case has been one of the most complex ever undertaken by the counter-terror team. He appealed for anyone who had seen the three men in the U.K. in March 2018 to come forward.

"Whilst public attention gradually moved away from what happened in Salisbury and Amesbury, the investigation team has remained absolutely focused, meticulously poring over the evidence and building our case," he said in a statement.''

Denis Sergeev: Who is the ‘third man’ wanted over Salisbury poisonings?
''Further details of his life and career have previously been revealed by the investigative website Bellingcat, but not confirmed by authorities.
Bellingcat reported that Sergeev held the rank of major-general at the time of the attack, which is senior to two other GRU agents previously named as suspects.''

''The first use of his alias Sergey Fedotov, has been dated to 2010, when a passport was issued in that name by the same office that issued cover documents to other agents involved in the Salisbury attack.

Sergeev arrived in the UK days before the Salisbury poisoning
(Met Police)
What was his role in the attack?
''Sergeev flew from Moscow to Heathrow Airport on 2 March 2018, arriving around four hours before his colleagues, and stayed at a hotel in Paddington for two nights.

British counter-terror police said Sergeev met the two agents who then travelled to Salisbury “on more than one occasion” over the weekend of the attack, but that no traces of novichok were found at his hotel''.

Pity that this much investigation hasn’t gone into the other 14 deaths (murders ?) that have occurred on British soil, allegedly perpetrated by Russians

 

[dotr]

Also posted on the Dawn Sturgess thread.
UK -Major incident declared - UK anti-terror police investigating possible nerve agent attack, 2018
Sept 22 2021
UK coroner asks for public inquiry into Novichok poisonings
''LONDON (AP) - A coroner presiding over an inquest into the death of British woman who was poisoned by a Soviet-developed nerve agent after an attack targeting a Russian ex-spy said Wednesday that she wants the probe to be turned into a public inquiry so she can examine Russia's possible involvement.

Unlike an inquest, British law allows a public inquiry to consider sensitive intelligence material during partly closed hearings. The inquiry coroner Heather Hallett requested to consider any role played by the Russian government in the 2018 death of Dawn Sturgess would be unlikely to start before 2023.

Sturgess, 44, and her partner collapsed in the southwest England town of Amesbury after coming into contact with a small perfume bottle containing Novichok, a military grade nerve agent.

The pair were exposed three months after Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were sickened in a Novichok attack in the nearby city of Salisbury.

Adam Straw, a lawyer representing Sturgess' family and her partner, Charlie Rowley, said the “overriding concern is to ensure the truth of how Ms. Sturgess died is established.”

“No family should wait 5 1/2 years to find out how someone died,” he said.''

 

[dotr]

August 20 2022

Scholz denounces Russian repression on 2nd anniversary of Navalny poisoning

Germany's chancellor has praised jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny on the second anniversary of his poisoning.

torontosun.com

''BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has praised jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny on the second anniversary of his attempted poisoning and denounced Russia’s clampdown on freedom of speech.''

''In a video message on Saturday, Scholz said he had spoken with Navalny while he was recovering in hospital in Berlin and found him to be a brave man who wanted to return to Russia to fight for democracy, freedom and the rule of law.


On his return, however, Navalny – President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic inside Russia – was immediately imprisoned.


“The war that Russia started against Ukraine is a war that also has consequences for Russia,” Scholz said. “Freedom and democracy were already endangered before. But now, freedom of expression is much more endangered and many fear to say their own opinion.”