Sergei Skripal, Russian Ex-Spy, Leaves U.K. Hospital After Poisoning

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Sergei V. Skripal in court in Moscow in 2006. He was convicted of selling secrets to the British, and imprisoned. He then came to England in a 2010 spy swap.CreditPress Office of Moscow District Military Court, via Getty Images

By Michael Wolgelenter and Ellen Barry

May 18, 2018

LONDON — Sergei V. Skripal, the former Russian spy whose poisoning in a sleepy English city touched off a diplomatic storm between Russia and the West, has been released from a hospital, British officials said on Friday.

Mr. Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, were both in critical condition after they were poisoned with a nerve agent known as a novichok — developed by Soviet scientists for battlefield use against Western troops — in the cathedral city of Salisbury, in southwest England, on March 4.

The British authorities said that Russia was to blame for the attack, an accusation that significantly raised tensions between the two countries and led to the expulsion of hundreds of diplomats from Britain, its allies and Russia.

“It is fantastic news that Sergei Skripal is well enough to leave Salisbury District Hospital,” Cara Charles-Barks, chief executive of the hospital, said in a statement.

Shortly after the poisoning, both victims were put into induced comas, a technique that lowers metabolism and may prevent poison from damaging the organs. They were also given medication to suppress seizures and an antidote, like atropine

Early reports suggested that the Skripals were hovering between life and death, and a court order issued in late March suggested that one or both may have sustained severe brain damage.

But about a week later, to the surprise of many, the police announced that Yulia Skripal had regained consciousness. She was released from the hospital in early April. The prognosis for both Skripals has continued to improve.

The attack may have gone awry because of the “substrate” that was mixed with the nerve agent in order to get it to stick to the victims’ skin, said Richard Guthrie, a chemical weapons expert formerly of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The police have suggested that the nerve agent was in liquid form, and that the Skripals were exposed at Mr. Skripal’s front door.

“When a hand touches that door handle, you’ve got to have some material coming off on the hand and staying on the hand without falling off onto any other surface,” he said. “It’s very rare for a poison to do that on its own.”

A top health official has said the poison was very potent and “did not degrade quickly.”

“You can assume it is not much different now from the day it was distributed,” Ian Boyd, the chief scientific adviser at the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told Salisbury residents at a meeting on April 19.

Mr. Guthrie said the substrate — which, in a contact poisoning, could be a substance like hand cream or petroleum jelly — may have prevented the nerve agent from entering the victims’ bloodstream in a fatal dose. He said the authorities had released no information about the substrate that was used.

“Clearly, the method of putting it through the skin didn’t kill them,” he said.

Alastair Hay, professor of environmental toxicology at Leeds University, said the exposure “would have killed them if they hadn’t had the right treatment.”

“I have it on good authority that the symptoms were recognized by the medical staff very early, and that enabled them to institute treatment promptly,” he said. He added that the attacker may have expected the two to lose consciousness and die inside the house.

“They wouldn’t have been found if they had stayed inside,” Mr. Hay said.

While the British authorities were quick to state that the Skripals and a third person, Det. Sgt. Nick Bailey, who became ill during the investigation, were poisoned with novichok, the hospital has been more circumspect in describing their recovery.

Ms. Charles-Barks said that the rules regarding patient confidentiality meant that the hospital could not provide “detailed accounts” of how the three had been treated, and she instead offered only vague assessments.

“Treating people who are so acutely unwell, having been poisoned by nerve agents, requires stabilizing them, keeping them alive until their bodies could produce more enzymes to replace those that had been poisoned,” she said.

Lorna Wilkinson, the director of nursing at the hospital, said in a statement that Mr. Skripal’s release was an important milestone in his recovery, which would now continue with outpatient care.

Follow Michael Wolgelenter and Ellen Barry on Twitter: @mwolgelenter and @EllenBarryNYT.

Iliana Magra contributed reporting from London.