LONDON — The investigation into the poisoning of a Russian double agent and his daughter intensified Friday, with Britain deploying military personnel to assist with the investigation.
Five days after police said they were “targeted specifically” with a nerve agent, Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain in critical condition in the quiet English city of Salisbury.
Skripal was jailed in Russia in 2006 for selling state secrets to the British intelligence services but was released in 2010 as part of a high-profile spy swap.
Much attention was focused Friday on Skripal’s red brick home. Commentators said police were exploring the theory that the former Russian spy and his daughter, who was reportedly visiting from Moscow, were exposed to the nerve agent at the house. They were discovered in a comatose state Sunday afternoon on a bench near a shopping center.
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A total of 21 people have received medical treatment after the mysterious attack, including Nick Bailey, a British police officer who is conscious but in serious condition.
Ian Blair, a former London police chief, told the BBC that Bailey had been to Skripal’s home and had fallen ill, whereas a doctor who had attended to the two Russians out in the open wasn’t affected.
“There may be some clues floating around in here,” he said of Skripal’s house.
On Friday, there were cordons around Skripal’s house, the pub and restaurant where the two visited, and the gravestones of Skripal’s wife, Liudmila, who died in 2012 at age 60, and son, Alexander, who died in 2017 at 43. There are conflicting reports on how they died. According to the Salisbury Journal, their deaths are being considered as part of the investigation.
About 180 military specialists were sent to Salisbury to help with the removal of items potentially contaminated by the nerve agent.
“Our armed forces have stepped up to support the police in their investigation,” said Britain’s Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson. “We have the right people with the right skills to assist with this crucial inquiry.”
[Former Russian spy critically ill in Britain after suspected poisoning]
During a visit to Salisbury on Friday, Amber Rudd, Britain’s home secretary, warned against jumping to conclusions.
“In terms of further options, that will have to wait until we’re absolutely clear what the consequences could be and what the actual source of this nerve agent has been,” Rudd said.
Police have not revealed which nerve agent was involved. But analysts say that if it is rare, it could help to narrow down which laboratory it was made in.
“Identifying a rare nerve agent is like identifying exotic food on your plate,” said Malcolm Sperrin, a medical physics expert. “If you are able to identify it, you might be able to say, ‘Oh, this obviously comes from Harrods department store.’ If it was a chicken pie you were looking at, well, that could have come from a million different places,” he said.
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Bob Seely, a Conservative lawmaker and member of the foreign affairs select committee, said that the U.K. should be cautious about apportioning blame, but said that circumstantial evidence did raise suspicions of Russian involvement.
“You don’t get nerve agent down at the freezer of Morrisons,” he told Sky News, referring to a British grocery store. “This comes from one or two places in the world, and one of them is the Russians.”
The Kremlin, which denies any involvement, says it resents the finger-pointing and suspicions that Russia played a role.
“We are accused of everything bad that happens in the world by our Western partners,” Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said at a news conference Friday.
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