It is quite clear that an event that happened in the quiet English city of Salisbury was a message from the Kremlin to both the government of Britain and to those Russians sheltering in the United Kingdom who have reason to fear the reach of Russian intelligence services.
Russian immigrant Sergei Skripal (66) and his daughter Yulia (33) were found slumped unconscious on a seat in the city. They had visited several shops in the area and consumed a meal in a nearby restaurant and emergency services rushed them to hospital. They are both critically ill and the doctors can only conclude that this illness was caused by contact with an unknown substance.
Sergei Skripal is an interesting character. He was a colonel in the Russian military convicted of spying for the west and this included giving Britain's MI6 the identity of several Russian agents working undercover in the United Kingdom. In 2006 he received a prison sentence and in 2010 he was pardoned and included in a spy swop in which each sides agents were exchanged. He and his family then lived quietly and uneventfully in England.
The old Russian KGB was notorious for assassinations on foreign soil. Many people still remember the murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in 1978. He was waiting for a bus when an assailant seemingly innocently jabbed him with the point of an umbrella. This injected a tiny pellet of ricin and Markov died in hospital three days later.
More recently was the poisoning of KGB defector Alexander Litvenenko who had escaped to Britain. It seems that Russian agents slipped a tiny amount of a radioactive agent into his cup of tea in a restaurant. It was Polonium, to which there is no antidote and Litvenenko took weeks to die and no doubt the reported agony of his death gave great satisfaction to those in Moscow who ordered the killing.
While Skripal and his daughter linger in hospital investigators uncover some startling facts. It seems that several other close members of his family have died in suspicious circumstances recently. In each case the death has been unusual, but not sufficiently so as to spark a major investigation. These deaths are now under intense review.
The message seems to be one of reminding those that fall foul of the Russian government that it has intelligence services with very long arms, and that they can - and will - reach out and repay treachery, nomatter where those people seek shelter.
The British identified the assassins responsible for the Litvenenko murder and they are subject to a world arrest order, but they remain safely within Russia and their government denies the charges. No doubt those responsible for the Skripal incident will have fled the country and will be safely ensconced within Russia's borders.
What seems new is the extending of vengeance from the prime suspect to members of his or her family. The reasoning seems to suggest that this will instill a new fear. They may accept the danger to their own lives, but by extending it to their families it will make recruiting by foreign intelligence services more difficult.
There is also the numerous Russian millionaires who made their money after the fall of the Soviet Union and fled to Britain when Putin came to power and started to nationalise private companies. Most still have some financial interests in Russia and perhaps a little publicity on the reach of Russian security services may make them more amenable to demands from the Kremlin.
Perhaps ego gives Putin satisfaction reminding the countries that host defectors that his tentacles have no limits !
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