Yulia , daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was discharged from British hospital late on Monday and is at a safe location, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
Sergie, 66, who as a colonel in Russian military intelligence betrayed dozens of agents to Britain’s foreign spy service, was found slumped unconscious on a bench in the city of Salisbury along with Yulia on March 4.
Britain blamed Russia for the poisoning, the first known offensive use of such a nerve agent on European soil since World War Two.
Moscow denied any involvement and suggested Britain had carried out the attack to stoke anti-Russian hysteria. After weeks of no reported change in his condition, the hospital confirmed that Sergei, who had been treated under heavy sedation, was now making fast progress.
Prime Minister Theresa May said the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s.
Russia has said it does not have such nerve agents and President Vladimir Putin dismissed as nonsense the notion that Moscow would have poisoned Sergei and his 33-year-old daughter.
The attack prompted the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War as allies in Europe and the U. S. sided with May’s view that Moscow was either responsible or had lost control of the nerve agent.
Moscow has hit back by expelling Western diplomats, questioning how Britain knows that Russia was responsible and offering its rival interpretations, including that it amounted to a plot by British secret services.
Sergei’s improvement marks the latest twist in an affair that British and Russian diplomats have variously compared with Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie mysteries.
Doctors had initially feared that the Sergei might have suffered permanent brain damage.A British judge said in March that the attack might have left them with compromised mental capacity, with an unclear effect on their long-term health.
One toxicologist said recovery in such cases was possible.
“We know that nerve agents cause a temporary but potentially lengthy effect on the brain and nervous system.
“What we also know however, is that with time the body clears the nerve agent away,” Chris Morris, a doctor at Newcastle University’s Medical Toxicology Centre, said in a statement.
Both Moscow and London have accused each other of trying to deceive the world with an array of claims, counter-claims and threats.
In a separate announcement, the U. S. imposed major sanctions on Friday against 24 Russians in one of Washington’s most aggressive moves to punish Moscow for what it called a range of “malign activity,” including alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
At a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday, Russia warned Britain that “you’re playing with fire and you’ll be sorry” over its accusations.
Comments
Post a Comment