Sergei Skripal, the Russian double agent who was poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent in England earlier this month, wrote to the Kremlin asking to return to Russia, according to one of his old school friends. Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain in critical condition in the hospital three weeks after being poisoned with a nerve agent that British scientists say belonged to Russia's Cold War chemical stocks. Moscow dismissed claims that Skripal spied for Britain in the early 2000s and that he was on a Kremlin-approved list of deserters.
On March 17, the Kremlin expelled 23 British diplomats from Moscow in response to London's earlier expulsion of 23 Russians, who according to the British government were "undeclared intelligence officers".
On Saturday, the BBC said it had contacted one of Skripal's friends from school, who said he was contacted by the double spy in 2012. Vladimir Timoshkov told the BBC he was a childhood friend of Skripal's when the two were in school together but lost contact later in life. In 2006, when he learned through the media that Skripal had been convicted of espionage, Timoshkov said he managed to contact Skripal's daughter Yulia after finding her on a social media platform. He kept in touch with her and in 2012 received a call from Skripal himself. At the time, the double spy was living in England, having moved there after the Kremlin traded him along with three others to ransom 10 Russian spies who had been captured in the United States.
Timoshkov said he and Skripal talked for half an hour, during which time Skripal told him he was not "a traitor" to the Soviet Union, the country he originally promised to protect. According to Timoshkov, Skripal also said he "regretted being a double agent" because his life "got messed up". He also said he felt isolated from his old classmates and friends, who avoided him after his arrest and conviction for spying. During the telephone conversation, Skripal allegedly told Timoshkov that he had written a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking for complete forgiveness. He did this because he lost his mother, brother and other relatives who lived in Russia, and he wanted to visit them. In the letter to President Putin, Skripal denied having betrayed his country and asked the Russian leader "complete forgiveness", Timoshkov said.
But on Sunday, the Russian government denied that a letter from Skripal had been received by the Kremlin. The BBC report was also denied by the Russian embassy in London. In a tweet quoting the Kremlin, the embassy said: “There was no letter from Sergei Skripal to President Putin to allow him to return to Russia.