How Did Skripal End Up on Team UK? Russian Spy Was Ensnared in MI6 Honeypot
There's newly found proof that Novichok was produced in Russia. Obviously, the proof is as irrefutable as the one provided by Britain in the Skripal poisoning case. This joke in a Telegram channel reflects the blogosphere's reaction to the situation. But Russian Foreign Ministry isn't in a playful mood. Tomorrow all the foreign diplomats are summoned for a conversation, as Maria Zakharova puts it, to clarify their stance. She added that all the hypotheses only distract the attention from the major issue, the fact that Britain presents no data, only accusations.
By the same pattern, Britain refused to cooperate with Russia to investigate the death of Nikolai Glushkov, Berezovsky's supporter. He was found choked, but the case was immediately marked classified for some reason. Though, they won't be able to use this case against Moscow. There was a leakage from the British media. Daily Mail notes that Glushko was likely to die in the course of a brutal play with his young partner. The article says something went terribly wrong.
Today, unpleasant pages of Sergei Skripal's biography surfaced by his former cellmates from the Russian prison where the GRU ex-colonel served his sentence.
Artem Kol is here now, good evening.
- Greetings. Has it been clarified how he became a spy?
- You won't believe it, but the colonel wanted some sweets.
Being a GRU employee, the British spy fell into a honey trap. It was 1995, Sergei Skripal was 44. He worked at the Russian embassy in Spain, recruiting foreign agents. As it often happens with spies, the hunter became a victim himself.
Valery Malevannyi, GRU Major General: "Everybody has their own weak spots. If you press such a spot, the person usually goes in for recruiting. Honey traps are the main source of recruiting for all the agents of intelligence services around the world".
In the spies' language, a honey trap means sex compromising material. A victim gives in to temptation, ending up in their counterparts' arms.
Konstantin Lapin, ex-FSB top official: "He was seduced by a woman, then operational footage was made, as in any special service. Then, they blackmailed him with it as a GRU officer".
Today, those who shared a cell with Skripal in a Mordovia prison revealed the details of his life behind bars at a press conference in Moscow. He was imprisoned there in 2006 for 13 years for high treason. The ex-prisoners say that Sergei Skripal regularly got parcels with tasty foot, delicacies, cigarettes. He talked with the cellmates unwillingly and was greedy. He often paid with cigarettes for time off at the prison's clothing factory where he had an honorable job of cutting threads on the final products. But Sergei Skripal knew it wouldn't last long.
"At the beginning of 2010, maybe at the end of 2009, he said to us: "I will be home soon. It will happen very soon".
In 2010, Sergei Skripal was exchanged for Russian spies. He was an extremely valuable employee for MI6. He sold several thousand secret papers over the 9 years of collaboration. Being a GRU head of personnel, he gave up our spies who worked undercover in Europe and the US. Even being retired, he continued to send secret data. Strong spirits and innate sociability were helpful at parties with current GRU employees who revealed secrets for old friendship's sake. The investigation reports, Skripal earned $100,000 over the 9 years. He is likely to have made more, but he hid it well.
Oleg Ivanov, head of the Social Conflicts Management Center: "If memory serves me right, he had a Niva. His clothes were simple as well. The only thing is that when we went out, he tried to pay for everybody".
Skripal worked with Oleg Ivanov in the Moscow Region administration right after his retirement from GRU. He didn't produce the impression of a wealthy man. His real income was revealed when the spy left for England. There, he bought a house for 340K pounds, which is over 30 million rubles, and a villa in Spain for 12 million rubles, and he still has some dozens of millions of rubles in his bank account. Is it stinginess or money-saving skills? We just know too little about Sergei Skripal.
Artem Kol has reported about Sergei Skripal's job and his life in the Russian prison.