Sergei Skripal does revenge for treason lie behind harm to exspy

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Sergei Skripal does revenge for treason lie behind harm to exspy

Observers note ominous pattern of 'bad luck' befalling family of pardoned Russian colonel

Inside a van, and rattling towards the airport, Sergei Skripal was in high spirits. It was July 2010. Without explanation Skripal had been taken from a penal colony, where he had spent the previous five and a half years, and transported in handcuffs to Moscow. Now he was about to board a flight to Vienna. His ultimate destination: Britain.

Unlikely though it seemed, Skripal was about to be swapped in classic cold war fashion. On the tarmac at Vienna airport he was to be exchanged for 10 Russian 'sleeper agents' caught by the FBI and on their way home to Moscow. Heading in the other direction were three fellow Russians, including Igor Sutyagin. All were accused of working for UK or US intelligence.

Sutyagin had been shovelling cinders on to a path in his prison compound in Russia's Arctic north when he was told he should prepare to go. He found himself in the same van as Skripal, under guard and trundling towards freedom. 'I talked to him for several hours,' Sutyagin said. 'We were in the same van and then in the same plane.'

Russian penal colonies are notoriously tough. The biggest privation for Skripal, Sutyagin said, was separation from his family ' his wife, Liudmilla, daughter Yulia and grown-up son. For much of his time in prison, following a conviction in 2006 for passing secrets to MI6, Skripal was incarcerated in Mordovia, more than 3,000 miles south-east of Moscow. This was a grim place of watchtowers and barbed wire.

'Sergei was excited about being reunited with his family. It seemed to me they were his major joy. I think family played a very important role in his life,' Sutyagin said. However, the swap agreement raised a dilemma for Sutyagin and Skripal. They were allowed to take one family member with them. Who, they wondered, should they take with them into exile'

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Date Posted: Tue, 6 Mar 2018, 01:02 pm

Tags: Sergei Skripal

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