UK police and MI5 security service are considering various versions of the Salisbury incident involving Sergei Skripal, a former officer of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) accused of spying on behalf of London, including a state-sponsored assassination and a personal dispute, The Times newspaper reported Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, citing its sources in the UK government, apart from state-sponsored assassination attempt the police are also considering alternative theories, for example, that the murder might have been set up in order to undermine the image of Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
The investigators plan to look into the deaths of Skripal’s wife, who passed away from cancer in 2012, and his son, who died last year in St. Petersburg, as part of the probe, the news outlet added.
On Tuesday, Kier Pritchard, the temporary chief constable of Wiltshire Police, said that the major version of the Salisbury incident had not been established so far.
On Monday, Wiltshire police said that a man and a woman were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury, adding that both people were “in a critical condition” and being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance. It was then confirmed that the man was Skripal, who was granted asylum in the United Kingdom after a US-Russia spy exchange, while the woman was his daughter Yulia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the media reports about Moscow’s alleged involvement in Skripal’s possible poisoning, adding that such accusations “were not long in coming.” He added that Moscow was “open to cooperation” in the investigation into the case.
In 2006, Skripal was sentenced in Russia to 13 years in prison for cooperating with the UK Secret Intelligence Service MI-6 and transferring names of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe. In 2010, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree pardoning Skripal.