Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/PA Images

Putin labels poisoned former spy Sergei Skripal a 'traitor' and a 'scumbag'

The Russian President was visibly angry when he was speaking about Skripal today in Moscow.

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR Putin has branded former double agent Sergei Skripal a “traitor” and a “scumbag”, saying Moscow knew he had cooperated with foreign intelligence after his release in a spy swap.

But he again denied any Russian involvement in the poisoning of Skripal, who Britain says was attacked with a Soviet-designed nerve agent by members of Russia’s military intelligence in March.

“He is just a scumbag,” a visibly angry Putin told an energy forum in Moscow.

“He is just a spy, a traitor to the homeland,” Putin said in his toughest remarks about Skripal to date.

He was caught, he was punished, he spent five years in prison, we let him go, he left and continued cooperating with, providing consultations to (foreign) security services.

The former Russian military intelligence colonel was found guilty of passing state secrets to Britain and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006. He was pardoned by then-president Dmitry Medvedev and released as part of a spy swap with the West in 2010.

Putin’s statement that Skripal consulted foreign intelligence goes against previous statements by his spokesman that the ex-spy is “of zero value or zero importance” to Moscow.

It follows reports that Skripal in recent years helped expose several Russian agents in European countries.

The Russian president once again laughed off British charges that two members of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service had sought to poison Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in the English city of Salisbury in March.

The Skripals survived but a British couple, Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, came into contact with the same nerve agent near Salisbury months later and Sturgess died.

Putin dismissed the crisis in relations with Britain that led to the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats from the West since the Cold War as a “row between security services”.

“As we know, spying, like prostitution, is one of the world’s most important professions,” Putin said, drawing applause from the audience. He apparently misspoke as the euphemism for prostitution is “oldest profession”.

He again denied charges Russia was behind the poisoning, saying: “No one had to poison anyone there (in Britain).”

“Sometimes I look at what is happening around this case and am simply amazed,” Putin said. “The sooner (the Skripal scandal) is over, the better.”

‘No proof’

British authorities have accused Putin of being ultimately responsible for the poisoning, allegations the Kremlin denounced as “unacceptable”.

Putin said Britain should go through proper channels to cooperate with Russia on the case by sending information to the prosecutor general so that Moscow “can look at what really happened”.

Last month, Putin called for the two men suspected by Britain of seeking to assassinate Skripal to appear on television, and he claimed that they were civilians.

In an eyebrow-raising interview with the Kremlin-funded RT channel, the two, who gave their names as Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, said they went to Salisbury as tourists, prompting ridicule in Russia and abroad.

Bellingcat, the British-based investigative group, said last week that “Boshirov” is in fact Anatoly Chepiga, a GRU colonel decorated with Russia’s top honour, the Hero of Russia, who has lived and worked under an assumed identity since 2010.

The report, produced together with Russian investigative journalists – one of whom later said he has left the country out of fear of prosecution – published an old passport photo of Chepiga, which resembles Ruslan Boshirov.

Moscow dismissed the report, saying “there is no proof” as physical likeness means nothing, and the Kremlin said it would no longer discuss the subject with journalists.

This week, several media outlets published a new photo of Anatoly Chepiga featured among portraits of honoured graduates of his military school in the Far East, which also clearly resembles Boshirov.

© – AFP 2018

Author
View 54 comments
Close
54 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Zossima
    Favourite Zossima
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 8:13 PM

    True Hollywood Stories with Charlie Murphy

    165
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ken Bracken
    Favourite Ken Bracken
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 8:48 PM

    @Zossima:
    RJ: “You know hanging out with the big dogs. You know, Charlie didn’t know. He was doing crazy things and I had to straighten him out, sometimes I had to go upside his head.

    CM: Things escalated to the point where, you know, my man got too familiar and I’d ended up having to whoop his ass, man, you know. Because he would step across the line. Habitually, he’s a habitual line stepper.

    130
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sean Ó Dubhhláin
    Favourite Sean Ó Dubhhláin
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 8:26 PM

    Darkness!

    131
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Unknown Souldier
    Favourite The Unknown Souldier
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 9:10 PM

    What i am gonna do bout my legs Charlie Murphy! R.I.P to one of the funniest storyteller’s in the game. He’ll be having pancakes with Prince in the morning.

    85
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Fleming
    Favourite David Fleming
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 8:45 PM

    I’m Rick James Biach!

    73
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Arthur Callaghan
    Favourite Arthur Callaghan
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 8:24 PM

    What did the five fingers say to the face…… What lol RIP charlie murphy rest in power.

    79
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eric Gaffney
    Favourite Eric Gaffney
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 8:48 PM

    @Arthur Callaghan: Absolute classic.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eamonn Sheen
    Favourite Eamonn Sheen
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 9:31 PM

    He will be playing basketball with Prince wherever they are. RIP Darkness.

    41
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fergus Flanagan
    Favourite Fergus Flanagan
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 9:57 PM

    Looks like it’s…Game: Blouses

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Geoff Tracey
    Favourite Geoff Tracey
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 10:23 PM

    Buy another couch ya rich Mudafu&k@!

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mike Holmes
    Favourite Mike Holmes
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 8:24 PM

    Its a terrible drug..

    46
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Allan Farrell
    Favourite Allan Farrell
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 10:28 PM

    Rip darkness

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute themanwiththeplan
    Favourite themanwiththeplan
    Report
    Apr 13th 2017, 6:24 AM

    He was the blackest n**ga around, well, that was until wesley snipes came along

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan McLaughlin
    Favourite Brendan McLaughlin
    Report
    Apr 13th 2017, 3:17 AM

    We will never forget you Charlie.
    Your slapstick movies will live on forever.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Les Behan
    Favourite Les Behan
    Report
    Apr 12th 2017, 9:02 PM

    “The F*ck Y’all Lookin’ At?” – Ed Wuncler III

    R.I.P Charlie Murphy!

    15
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds