Sergei Skripal Released From U.K. Hospital After Poisoning; President Putin of Russia States He Hopes Skripal Will Be Safe and Sound
Sergei Skripal Released From Hospital After Poisoning – NHS England
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, poisoned in the United Kingdom, was discharged from a hospital in Salisbury, the National Health Service England said Friday.
“Sergei Skripal has been discharged from Salisbury District Hospital. Mr. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were admitted to the hospital along with DS Nick Bailey after having been exposed to a nerve agent on 4 March 2018. All three have now been discharged,” the statement read.
Yulia Skripal, for her part, was released from the hospital on April 11 after recovering and regaining the ability to speak in late March.
“It is fantastic news that Sergei Skripal is well enough to leave Salisbury District Hospital,” hospital’s Chief Executive Cara Charles-Barks said.
According to the Chief Executive statement, despite the fact that all the patients have been discharged, the NHS respects their confidentiality and could not disclose the details of their treatment.
The NHS noted, citing Cara Charles-Barks, that all the staff had shown high skills and professionalism while treating the Skripals.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he hopes that Sergei Skripal will be safe and sound, noting that Skripal would have died immediately if he had been poisoned with a weapons-grade toxic agent.
Detectives from the UK’s Counter-Terrorism Policing network continue to investigate the attempted murders of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury in March this year.
“This is a complex investigation and detectives continue to gather and piece together all the evidence to establish the full facts and circumstances behind this dreadful attack,” the UK’s Counter-Terrorism representative stated.
The Russian ambassador to the UK said he was happy that Skripal was alright, but he had the impression that the Russian side would never see the Skripals.
“Sergei Skripal was discharged from the hospital… we are happy that he is alright and so that is another great opportunity to see him,” Alexander Yakovenko told reporters.
Sergei and Yulia Skripal have reportedly been taken to an undisclosed location for their safety.
READ MORE: Ex-Spy Sergei Skripal Recovering, Not in Critical Condition — Hospital
The Skripals were found unresponsive on a park bench on March 4, 2018, after the two were exposed to the A-234 nerve agent in Salisbury, UK.Following the attack, UK Prime Minister Theresa May stated that she would be expelling 23 Russian diplomats, and accused Russia of the incident. Several countries have since followed the UK and expelled Russian diplomats as a sign of “solidarity.”
Russia has repeatedly denied the UK’s accusations, noting that London has not provided sufficient evidence to prove their claims.
Germany Also Had Possession of Novichok in the 1990s May 17 (EIRNS)— Earlier this month the Czech President declared that his country’s secret service had experimented with the nerve agent Novichok, which the British claim that only Russia had had. Britain had used its undocumented assertion as “proof” that Russia had poisoned ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in March. Now it is revealed that in the 1990s, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) had gained a sample of the “Novichok” nerve agent and determined its chemical composition, according to an investigative team from the German dailies Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, and public broadcasters NDR and WDR.
Deutsche Welle, for its part, wrote that the report claims that the BND had a Russian scientist as a secret informant in Russia in the early 1990s, who offered information and samples of a new class of Russian-made chemical weapons in exchange for asylum in Germany. Then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the Defense Ministry permitted a sample to be sent to a laboratory in Sweden for analysis. The laboratory transferred the chemical formula, but not the original sample, to the BND and German Defense Ministry. The BND shared the information with Germany’s NATO allies, the United States and United Kingdom.
The report claims that some countries used the information about “Novichok” to produce small quantities of the nerve agent as countermeasures. It also claims Western countries’ knowledge about the nerve agent “largely stems” from the secret mission.
The report confirms statements by the Russian government that several NATO countries, including Germany, Great Britain, and the Czech Republic, and non-NATO member Sweden, were experimenting with Novichok in the 1990s, refuting the British pretense that only Russia could have made the nerve agent
My Comment: This is a FYI from EIR by Larouche PAC Daily Alert Service.
