The nerve agent who poisoned the Russian double spy in England last week may have been smeared on the handle of his car, according to some sources.
Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are in critical condition after being poisoned on March 4 by strangers in the English city of Salisbury. Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, has lived there since 2010, when he was released from a Russian prison after serving half his 13-year sentence for spying for Britain. The British government said today that Skripal and her daughter were poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent, thought to have been made in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. British counter-terrorism experts continue to gather evidence on the case. Moscow, however, denies any involvement.
Yesterday Neil Basu, spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Service, which hosts the British counter-terrorism force, said that the investigation into the Skripal poisoning was complex and thorough. Speaking to reporters in London, Basu said hundreds of witnesses had been contacted and around 400 items from various crime scenes linked to the March 4 attack on the two Russians were collected. He added that investigators were still examining the whereabouts of the Skripals during a 40-minute period of driving in Mr. Skripal's car. According to the British newspaper The Daily Mail, Mr. Skripal's dark red BMW is now "at the center of the investigation" in his poisoning. There are claims, the newspaper said, that the former spy and his daughter came into physical contact with the nerve agent by touching the door handles of the BMW as they entered the car on the evening of March 4. Some investigators seem to believe that the nerve agent may have been smeared on the door handles of the car.
Metropolitan police are now appealing to witnesses who may have seen the Skripals driving downtown Salisbury in the red BMW, or arriving at the parking lot of Sainsbury's, a British supermarket chain, in the early afternoon of March 4. Basu said it was not known if the couple had met anyone during those 40 minutes. The police spokesman said the Skripals are still fighting for their lives in a local hospital. He added that the investigation into their poisoning "will take several weeks".