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Vladimir Putin may have ordered the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal because the former Russian spy was withholding classified information about the Russian president’s “criminal misappropriation” of profits from metals production, the UK government believes.
A leading intelligence officer of Russia said he took “at face value” Skripal’s claims that secrets he knew about how Putin might have made money led to the nerve agent attack on him in Salisbury.
An inquiry into the poisonings has heard Foreign Office experts concluded Putin personally ordered the attack for it was inconceivable that such an audacious act should be performed without his consent. The main remaining question is why Russian agents were sent to Salisbury to kill Skripal.
In his testimony, Skripal said that when he worked for the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, he had access to “classified information” and “was aware of allegations that Putin was involved in illegal activity related to the disposal of rare metals.” .
When Skripal was interviewed by British police after the nerve agent attack in March 2018, he said that Putin had “misappropriated” the proceeds from the aluminum sale.
Asked by the inquiry’s lawyer, Andrew O’Connor, whether knowledge of Putin’s “criminal embezzlement” could have been the motive for the attack during the inquiry, Jonathan Allen, director-general of defense and intelligence at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office , said he took Skripal’s claim at face value.
He said: “It makes sense if he [Skripal] was working as a senior member of the GRU, he would have access to classified information. As for the allegations regarding President Putin, it is very difficult to know exactly what is happening in Russia. Civil society is almost non-existent, independent media are closed, the judiciary works to protect the government and President Putin.
“There are numerous open source works that link senior figures in the government, including the president, to control of natural resources, to control of the sources of Russian wealth and the suggestion that they profited from it. Certainly President Putin is at the top of a state that is highly corrupt and that secures loyalty through patronage and fear. I would say they could be motives.
Since October, an investigation in the United Kingdom has been looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dawn Sturgiswho was poisoned with novichok in June 2018, three months after the Skripal attack.
In the final day of evidence last week, Allen was asked about an email chain created by the inquiry involving UK Foreign Office and Cabinet officials in which they reported remarks made by Putin about Skripal and Sturgis, who died after by spraying herself with a nerve agent from a fake perfume bottle found by her partner Charlie Rowley.
Officials said Putin described Skripal as a “traitor” and suggested he may have worked with the UK after coming to England following a spy swap. Putin is reported to have said: “He left and continued to cooperate and consult with some special services.” Allen said he could not comment on that claim.
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Of Sturgis and Rowley, Putin reportedly said, “Are you saying we poisoned some homeless person, too? Some guys come and start poisoning the homeless people there. Nonsense. What, do they work for some cleaning department?’
Allen said the comments were “pretty insensitive”. He said: “They are extremely offensive and again rather indicative of his rather dismissive attitude towards what happened.”
In the final day of the inquest on Monday, Sturgis’ legal team will argue that more could have been done to protect the British people from the Russian threat.
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