The Skripals’ absence from Dawn Sturgess’ investigation shows that the West must return to the Cold War…

October 15, 2024, 10:12 am

In the wake of the Salisbury poisoning and Russia’s continued pursuit of defectors, fear continues to shape the lives of those who betray the Kremlin.

In March 2018, two Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) officers, Anatoliy Chepiga and Aleksander Mishkin, traveled to Salisbury, England to smear a chemical weapon, Novichok (literally: “newbie”), on the doorknob of Sergey Skripal’s house. Their operation had two simultaneous objectives.

One of these was to eliminate a traitor: Skripal was a GRU officer who chose to work for British intelligence in the 1990s. Such a choice is inexcusable in the GRU. Shortly after Skripal’s poisoning, Russian President Vladimir Putin bluntly called traitors “bastards” worthy of death.

Nevertheless, Chepiga and Mishkin have failed to achieve that goal.

The second goal was to instill fear in the minds of anyone who would choose a similar path of betrayal in the future. The outrageous nature of the assassination attempt on Skripal warned the Russians: we know where you are and will show no mercy.

That message was repeated in February 2024, when Russian-linked assassins killed a Russian officer Maksim Kuzminovwho defected to Ukraine in August 2023.

While pursuing these objectives, Chepiga and Mishkin likely did not intend to kill an innocent bystander. However, their incompetent workmanship led not only to their own unmasking, but also to the tragic death of Dawn Sturgess, an individual unrelated to the operation.

Their careless disposal of the Novichok bottle allowed Ms Sturgess to expose herself to the poison, leading to her death.

But despite their ineptitude, the warning message was heard loud and clear. Skripal and his daughter Yuliya chose not to attend Dawn Sturgess’ murder trial, which started on October 14.

Their decision is reasonable: their presence would put them in the public eye, something they have avoided since their near-death experience in 2018.

The success of the second objective is prompting Western intelligence services, which host and resettle Russian defectors, to return to Cold War-style security measures. During the Soviet era, Western services provided defectors with new names and money to resettle and sent them to remote places to avoid public scrutiny.

Fears of Russian retaliation likely increased further when six Bulgarians were arrested in Britain in 2023 British prosecutor involved in that case accused the group of collecting information about Russians abroad.

The Skripals’ decision to avoid the Sturgess trial is based on fear, but fear is precisely how the Putin regime governs its people, both inside Russia and abroad. Western services must return to the Cold War to allay those fears.

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Dr. Kevin Riehle is a lecturer in intelligence and international security at Brunel University London.

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