Former Russian double agent seriously ill in Salisbury.

Nasher said:
Russia's story has so many plot holes it should be a Hollywood movie.

"Yea...we flew 1000s of miles on fake passports to visit one Cathedral in a very un-touristy area, then flew home a day later without our luggage. On the same day an ex-Russian spy was poisoned by Russian nerve agent. Perfectly normal, what's the problem".

It would look less suspect if they said nothing. But Putin said they were going to talk to the press, so they had to wing it lol
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The story is a bit odd - the defence of it was a women's perfume bottle seems a bit odd and raised as a deflection as all they'd need to say was it was for a gift for a women friend/relative or something (maybe need to be a bit prepared for the unlikely chance the officer would want to know the women's details) and off they'd go without it looking odd at all - pretty much everyone understands buying perfume for a girlfriend (or "girlfriend"), etc.

On the other hand it can be quite strange (to us) what people visit the UK for tourist wise - some things seem fascinating to those of other cultures that we wouldn't even give a second thought - there are Chinese for instance who will fly in from 1000s of miles away to spend just a day visiting Kidlington before leaving again - though presumably they take their luggage with them.
 
They do, but the Chinese do it on organised bus trips in large groups. They don't just rock up on a plane and go directly to a specific village, in the middle of nowhere on their own :p
 
Nasher said:
Russia's story has so many plot holes it should be a Hollywood movie.

"Yea...we flew 1000s of miles on fake passports to visit one Cathedral in a very un-touristy area, then flew home a day later without our luggage. On the same day an ex-Russian spy was poisoned by Russian nerve agent. Perfectly normal, what's the problem".

It would look less suspect if they said nothing. But Putin said they were going to talk to the press, so they had to go on camera looking guilty AF and wing it lol
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Note they have also altered their appearances since. Both have changed their hair style, the one with a beard has gone clean shaven and the other has grown more of a beard.
 
Freakbro said:
I know they were, I was meaning the new "They were just tourists coming to visit the Cathedral" narrative :)
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I never had that impression (that they'd just be tourists) so whether for bias confirmation or otherwise, I didn't find their statements in the two part interview believable. Do believe they are lying about their real motives for being there.

Same gut instinct that tells me they are lying about this (although I might be wrong), also tells me they wouldn't walk up to Skripal's front door in broad daylight and apply nerve agent to the handle when the safe thing to assume is that there would be CCTV, hidden or otherwise, as well as possible witnesses, and that they then wouldn't loiter around in Salisbury (although I might be wrong about this too).
 
the cathedral stuff is hilarious

I love the straight from the wikipedia page "facts" they quote about the spire height and the clock to back up their claim of being tourists - I work in salisbury and see it every day and didnt know about that :D

All that travel from russia to salisbury but cba to go to stonehenge because its a bit slushy lol

The perfume excuse is also hilarious in that it highlights the putinesque thinking that men would never carry perfume because they are men who wrestle bears, hunt etc and wouldnt be seen dead buying duty free perfume for a mrs at the airport :D:D
 
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Danny75 said:
I never had that impression (that they'd just be tourists) so whether for bias confirmation or otherwise, I didn't find their statements in the two part interview believable. Do believe they are lying about their real motives for being there.

Same gut instinct that tells me they are lying about this (although I might be wrong), also tells me they wouldn't walk up to Skripal's front door in broad daylight and apply nerve agent to the handle when the safe thing to assume is that there would be CCTV, hidden or otherwise, as well as possible witnesses, and that they then wouldn't loiter around in Salisbury (although I might be wrong about this too).
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Honestly, you're just completely overstating the case of how important an asset Skripal was and how much surveillance our intelligence services are able to, or even want to, deploy in a continual daily manner on someone like this.

Bear in mind most of our resources and focus are directed towards Islamic and Right Wing terrorism in this country, what overt daily interest would our services have in an ex spy who we swapped 8 years ago.

Also, it seems the Russians have been bopping off their citizens in London/UK for quite a while now and no-one is that bothered, like I said before, our services wouldn't have been bothered about this one either, but unfortunately for all involved, it went public and the politicians were forced to act.
 
Freakbro said:
Honestly, you're just completely overstating the case of how important an asset Skripal was and how much surveillance our intelligence services are able to, or even want to, deploy in a continual daily manner on someone like this.
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Not really. His mates Christopher Steele and Pablo Miller have been freaked out for going on two years because of the Steele/Trump dossier. Would only be natural for Sergei to be freaked out too. It would be unthinkable that no CCTV was placed in Christie Miller Road, and that security wasn't amped up.

Ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele in hiding after Trump dossier - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38591382
 
Whats the current link between them as Skripal obviously wasn't freaked out enough to go into hiding....or change his name....or where he lived.

Here's another news item

Sources have also dismissed reports of a link between Mr Skripal and private intelligence groups, including Orbis, the company jointly run by Christopher Steele, the former MI6 spy who compiled the infamous Trump-Russia dossier.
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https://www.ft.com/content/46eb6414-22f8-11e8-ae48-60d3531b7d11
 
Freakbro said:
Whats the current link between them as Skripal obviously wasn't freaked out enough to go into hiding....or change his name....or where he lived.

Here's another news item



https://www.ft.com/content/46eb6414-22f8-11e8-ae48-60d3531b7d11
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The link was Pablo Miller, Skripal's handler. Miller was listed as a consultant with Steele's Orbis Business Intelligence company. His name was deleted from Orbis' Linkedin page, and Miller's Linkedin profile was also deleted in the days after 4th March. Reporters such as Luke Harding from The Guardian stated that "sources" had told him there was no link, but failed to explain why the information had suddenly been deleted. A DSMA Notice reminder was then sent out, as reported by Alex Thomson of Channel 4, reminding media to basically not talk about spy handlers (such as Pablo Miller).

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Mark Urban of the BBC interviewed Sergei Skripal in 2017 but no interview was published. He now says he's going to use the interview for his upcoming book on Skripal. Mark Urban served as an officer in the Royal Armoured Corps (formerly Royal Tank regiment) at the same time as Pablo Miller (also an officer). An interesting connection, and one which might explain how Urban got access to Skripal for an interview.

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As a possible reason for Skripal remaining where he was - Steele's name went public, and he went into hiding, along with Pablo Miller. If Skripal himself had gone into hiding, they may have deemed that would be a sign of implication, i.e. that he was one of the Russian sources used by Steele. Or another plan was arranged. Coming back to the present - he's in hiding now, there is tons of chatter in the media about him being provided with a new identity, and a new place to live in a Five Eyes country. Ironically the same result, but with the advantage of being able to blame Russia for it (instead of British interference in a US presidential election).
 
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Because they look pretty much the same bar a change of facial hair here or there.

What is their excuse regarding the perfume? Can't find anything conclusive.
 
Well i'm sold.

I always know the exact height of any Cathedral spires of places i visit just in case there's an exam later on.
 
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