In the British Salisbury with severe poisoning was hospitalized Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence agent, convicted of espionage in favor of Britain.

According to the BBC, he and another woman, whose name is not called, a day earlier became ill at the mall. In the hospital, both were diagnosed with severe poisoning with an unidentified substance.

At the moment, both poisoned are in the intensive care unit of the Salisbury Regional Hospital. In the center of the city some buildings were cordoned off, people in protective suits showered the streets with hoses for the purpose of disinfection. In addition, the police conducted a search in the house of Skripal.

A police statement issued on Monday evening said that the pair had no apparent damage, but both lost consciousness. Assistant Chief of Police Craig Holden stressed that the investigation is still in the initial stage, and therefore law enforcement agencies can not unequivocally say whether the crime was committed or not.

Who is Sergey Skripal Former Colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff Sergei Skripal, convicted in Russia for espionage in favor of British intelligence, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006. In 2010, as part of a large-scale exchange of spies between the US and Russia, he was granted asylum in the United Kingdom.

The incident occurred on March 4. Scripple and his companion became ill after they went shopping at the Salisbury shopping center. After the hospitalization of the victims, this place was cordoned off by specialists in protective suits. They began to clean up the adjoining territory.

Wiltshire County police wrote that eyewitnesses reported the incident at approximately 16:20 local time. A man and his companion of about thirty, who the police assumed knew each other, were unconscious on a bench near the mall The Maltings. The victims had no external injuries. They were taken to the district hospital in a critical condition, now they are in intensive care.

According to the BBC, the substance due to which Skripal suffered, remains unknown. As the Telegraph writes, physicians suspect that the spy was poisoned by fentanyl - a powerful opioid analgesic.

Before 1999, Colonel Sergei Skripal served in the General Staff of the General Staff of Russia. He was detained on suspicion of spying on British intelligence in 2004. Two years later he was sentenced to 13 years in a strict-security colony.

In 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev pardoned Skripal in the so-called "exchange of spies". Then Russia sent in the USA, in addition to Skripal, Igor Sutyagin, Alexander Zaporozhsky and Gennady Vasilenko. Soon, Skripal was granted asylum in the UK.

The United States, in turn, sent ten defendants accused of espionage arrested at the end of June 2010 - Anna Chapman, Mikhail Semenko, Mikhail Kutzik, Natalia Pereverzeva, Viki Pelaez, Mikhail Vasenkov, Vladimir and Lydia Guriev, Andrei Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova.

"The Litvinenko Affair" The most resonant case of poisoning was the case of Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer who, in all likelihood, worked as a consultant for one of the British special services. In 2006, he died of cardiac arrest caused by poisoning with radioactive polonium-210. Following an open investigation into the murder of Litvinenko in London, the judge concluded that he was poisoned "on instructions from the FSB".