UK's Boris Johnson vows robust response if Russia linked to sick spy
London (CNN)Britain's top diplomat says the UK would respond "robustly" if Russia is found to be behind the suspected poisoning of a former double agent.
Speaking in Parliament Tuesday, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said there was "much concern" over what has happened to Sergei Skripal, 66, a former Russian military official convicted of spying for the UK, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, who was visiting from Russia.
The pair were found slumped on a shopping center bench in the town of Salisbury, England, Sunday and are critically ill in a UK hospital after suffering "suspected exposure to an unknown substance," according to a source familiar with the investigation.
UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd is expected to chair an emergency cabinet-level COBRA meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the ongoing investigation, a Downing Street spokesperson told CNN.
Skripal was convicted in Russia of spying for Britain before being granted refuge in the UK after a high-profile spy swap between the United States and Russia in 2010.
Johnson said while he is not "pointing fingers, as we cannot," Britain makes it clear to governments "around the world, that no attempts to take innocent lives on UK soil will go unpunished."
"If evidence emerges of state responsibility, the government will respond appropriately and robustly," Johnson said.
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Who is Sergei Skripal?
The response drew an acerbic response from Russia's embassy in London, which released a statement saying it "looks like the script of yet another anti-Russian campaign has already been written."
In a statement, the embassy said it was "impressed" by Johnson's comments, saying he spoke "in such a manner as if the investigation was already over and Russia was found responsible for what had happened in Salisbury."
"We regret that instead of a proper official clarification on the issue the foreign secretary chose to threaten Russia with retribution," it read.
Johnson also called into question the UK's involvement in the 2018 World Cup, which kicks off in Russia in 100 days. UK Foreign Office representative later clarified those comments, stating that Johnson was referring to the UK's diplomatic representation at the event, rather than the English football team, which has qualified for the tournament.
Yulia Skripal, seen here in a photograph from Facebook, is thought to be one of the few members of the former spy's immediate family still alive.
'Unknown substance'
Salisbury, perhaps best known as the stopping-off point for tourists visiting nearby Stonehenge, has become the unlikely center of an extensive police probe into the mysterious circumstances around how Skripal and his daughter fell ill.
Authorities have declined to name the substance to which the pair are suspected to have been exposed to, and it's believed tests are still being carried out.
Investigators wearing protective fear and masks were seen Tuesday evening inside Zizzi's restaurant near Salisbury city center, where Skripals were found. It's one of a number of sites that are being examined in relation to the case in the county of Wiltshire, where Salisbury is located.
A small number of emergency services personnel were treated immediately after attending a scene of suspected contamination, local police said Tuesday. One of them remains in the hospital.
A police officer stands outside Zizzi Restaurant in the Salisbury town center, close to where a man and woman, belived to be Skripal and his daughter, had been found unconscious two days previously.
Russia spy case a chilling reminder of suspicious deaths in UK
'Echoes' of prior state-sponsored killing
Foreign Secretary Johnson added that there are "echoes" in this case of what happened to former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died a slow death after drinking tea laced with highly radioactive polonium-210 in a Mayfair hotel of London in 2006.
A detailed UK inquiry later concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved the operation by Russian agents to kill Litvinenko. At the time, the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the UK investigation as politically motivated.
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Former Russian spy deaths through the years
On Tuesday, UK Home Affairs Secretary Yvette Cooper called for a review of all suspicious deaths in the UK that could be linked to the Russian state, by Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) or a similar body.
In a letter to Rudd, the Home Affairs Secretary, Cooper referred to a local media report which suggested 14 deaths had raised concerns.
"Surely a review of all these cases and the decisions made on them, in light of this further reported evidence, carried out by the NCA, would be a prudent course of action to ensure that -- as the Foreign Secretary said today -- no attempt on an innocent life on British soil should go uninvestigated or unpunished," Cooper said.
Who is Sergei Skripal?
Skripal arrived in the UK as part of an elaborately choreographed spy swap conducted by the United States and Russia in which the two countries exchanged agents on chartered planes on the runway at an airport in Vienna, Austria.
According to previous reports by Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti, Skripal was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006 for spying for the UK.
It quoted Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, as saying Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence colonel, was convicted for "treason in the form of espionage" and that he had been recruited by Britain's MI6 intelligence service.
The report said he had spied for Britain as an intelligence officer during the 1990s and he had continued to communicate with MI6 after his retirement in 1999.
Russian court officials said Skripal had received at least $100,000 for his collaboration with MI6, RIA Novosti reported.
Skripal is believed to have lived in the UK since his release from Russian custody in 2010.
Skripal's daughter is thought to be one of the few members of his immediate family still alive after his wife, Lyudmila, and son Alexander died in recent years.
News Courtesy: www.cnn.com
