A few more details have been released in the puzzling situation of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, who was found slumped on a bench in the UK on Sunday. The BBC reports the woman who was unconscious beside him is his daughter, Yulia, and that two police officers who responded to the scene were treated for "minor symptoms." But the substance that may have sickened the pair, who are in intensive care in a Salisbury hospital, remains unknown. An official simply says, "They are currently being treated for suspected exposure to an unknown substance." The Guardian reports that Yulia Skripal, in her 30s, was visiting the UK from Russia.
Vice reports Skripal has one surviving daughter; his wife died in 2012 and his son died on a recent visit to Russia, though the death was not considered suspicious, Vice says. Skripal was in 2006 sentenced to 13 years for unmasking undercover Russian spies to MI6, but he was pardoned and swapped in exchange for 10 Russian "sleeper agents" the FBI had nabbed in America. A rep for Vladimir Putin addressed the situation, calling it "tragic" but saying, "We don't have information on what could have led to this, what he was engaged in." The Guardian adds that the rep "appeared to mock" the speculations by British media that Russia could have had a hand in this, saying, "It didn't take them long." (In that 2010 spy swap, the US got the pros.)
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