London — Britain offers wealthy Russians many attractions — but for some former spies and foes of President Vladimir Putin, it has become lethal.
The latest victims are 66-year-old Sergei Skripal — a former colonel in Russia's military intelligence service, then a turncoat helping British agents — and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia. Both were found comatose on a bench Sunday in the medieval city of Salisbury.
British officials say they were exposed to a rare nerve agent. They are in critical condition.
Some in Britain say the nerve agent attack fits a pattern of suspicious Russian-related deaths in the U.K. and in the United States, and are calling for a high level police investigation into whether Britain has become a killing ground for the state-sanctioned elimination of foes of the Russian government.
