Another exiled Russian ‘poisoned’ in the UK – diplomatic flurries

   

 

Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary, has leapt in with both feet over the seeming poisoning of a Russian living in the UK. Sergei Skripal and his daughter are critically ill in hospital after being found unconscious in Salisbury. He is a former army officer who spied for MI6 and was freed from Russian prison in a spy-swap a few years ago. Counter Terrorism Police have taken over the investigation though have said there is no risk to the general public, so unlike the killing in 2006 of Alexander Litvinenko, a defector and former Russian secret service agent who died from radioactive polonium. Porton Down, the UK’s secret weapons research facility, is trying to establish what the unknown substance in this instance is.

Boris Johnson said he was not pointing fingers at this stage but described Russia as “a malign and disruptive force”. Mr Skripal’s relatives have told the BBC Russian Service that the former spy believed the Russian special services might come after him at any time. His wife, elder brother and his son have died in the past two years, some in mysterious circumstances, the family believe. Russia has denied any involvement.

Sergei Skripal, 23 June 1951, is a Sun Uranus in Cancer with his Uranus on the point of a T Square to Jupiter in Aries opposition Neptune – rebellious, keen to see changes and spearhead reform, not always practical or realistic. His Jupiter is also in a confident trine to Pluto Venus in Leo.

Tr Pluto is opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint at the moment. And that pairing is also highlighted in his relationship chart with Russia (8 November 1917) which has a composite Uranus opposition Venus square Mars Pluto. That indicates a life or death power struggle with deep hostility on both sides. Tr Uranus is square the composite Pluto Mars at the moment. That chart also has a deeply suspicious and undermining composite Sun Saturn Neptune conjunction. Skripal’s reforming Uranus is conjunct the Russia 1917’s controlling 10th house Pluto, so he would react badly to the authoritarian rule.

The UK/Russia relationship chart also looks set back on its heels and irritable at the moment with tr Saturn exactly opposition the composite Mars. It’ll rumble for a few months. But it’s likely to pater out. During Theresa May’s time as Home Secretary she refused an inquiry into Litvinenko’s death, since it would ‘upset’ diplomatic relations. London is host to a great many Russian criminals and wealthy oligarchs. Though into 2019/2020 relations between the two countries will move through a highly disruptive phase.

9 thoughts on “Another exiled Russian ‘poisoned’ in the UK – diplomatic flurries”

  1. Marjorie
    An interesting take on this from Moon Over Alabama blog:-
    More likely motives can be found in the tight connection to another important affair. The British Telegraph reports today:

    A security consultant who has worked for the company that compiled the controversial dossier on Donald Trump was close to the Russian double agent poisoned last weekend, it has been claimed.

    The consultant, who The Telegraph is declining to identify, lived close to Col Skripal and is understood to have known him for some time.
    …
    The Telegraph understands that Col Skripal moved to Salisbury in 2010 in a spy swap and became close to a security consultant employed by Christopher Steele, who compiled the Trump dossier.

    The British security consultant, according to a LinkedIn social network account that was removed from the internet in the past few days, is also based in Salisbury.

    On the same LinkedIn account, the man listed consultancy work with Orbis Business Intelligence, according to reports.

    Meduza named the man the Telegraph declines to identify as:

    Pablo Miller, who at the time was posing as Antonio Alvarez de Hidalgo and working in Britain’s embassy in Tallinn. Russia’s Federal Security Service says Miller was actually an undercover MI6 agent tasked with recruiting Russians.

    Orbis is Christopher Steele’s company which was paid by the Clinton campaign to make up or find ‘dirt’ about Trump. Sergei Skripal was an agent Steele himself was likely involved with:

    Steele had spent more than twenty years in M.I.6, most of it focussing on Russia. For three years, in the nineties, he spied in Moscow under diplomatic cover. Between 2006 and 2009, he ran the service’s Russia desk, at its headquarters, in London. He was fluent in Russian, and widely considered to be an expert on the country.

    Steele was an MI6 undercover agent in Moscow around the time when Skripal was recruited and handed over Russian secrets to the MI6. He also ran the MI6 Russia desk so anything about Skripal will have passed through him. It is very likely that they personally knew each other. Pablo Miller, who worked for Steele’s private company, lived in the same town as Skripal and they seems to have been friends since Miller had recruited him. Miller or someone else attempted to cover up the connection to Steele by editing his LinkedIn entry.

    Here are some question:

    Did Skripal help Steele to make up the “dossier” about Trump?
    Were Skripal’s old connections used to contact other people in Russia to ask about Trump dirt?
    Did Skripal threaten to talk about this?

    If there is a connection between the dossier and Skripal, which seems very likely to me, then there are a number of people and organizations with potential motives to kill him. Lots of shady folks and officials on both sides of the Atlantic were involved in creating and running the anti-Trump/anti-Russia campaign. There are several investigations and some very dirty laundry might one day come to light. Removing Skripal while putting the blame on Russia looks like a convenient way to get rid of a potential witness.”

    • I gather Steele/Orbis have denied all contact with Skripal – for what that’s worth, but suggested he may have been working for other private security firms.
      It’s going to end up like the assassination of JFK – conflicting conspiracy theories swirling for years.
      Two other thoughts. One is a gangster connection trying to curry favour with Putin for delivering him a ‘present’ – similar to the Chechens killing a dissident on a Moscow Bridge last year or year before. Or alternatively someone trying to undermine Putin by setting the international community against him. The key will be the nerve agent if they can identify which lab it came from.

  2. Amber Rudd announced in the Commons today that they won’t speculate as to who’s behind the attack as Coco the Clown Johnston points the finger at Putin.

    Meanwhile it could be just about anyone from the US, Saudi to Israel etc, etc, etc.

    Seems strange too that over a dozen Russians have been killed in England more recently, brought up in the Commons by Deirdre Brock SNP MP today, with not one since Litvinenko being killed by a nerve gas / poison. No one has been brought to task for the dozen killings (caught), so if it’s a revenge killing why change the successful modus operandi?

  3. The announcement by the police that Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, and a policeman, are the victims of an attack in which a nerve agent was used, and that inevitably means suspicion will now be very much focused on Russia.
    The strongest astrology I have found of this event is that in the UK (1801)/ Russia(1917) relationship chart (midpoint in time and space). (I don’t use composite charts in my work, preferring a real time and place to work with, although transiting Saturn is currently opposite composite Mars). Anyway the relationship chart holds some very apt symbolism for the current event. The Mercury Venus conjunction in the skies of Earth on Sunday, the day of the event, was conjunct relationship Neptune (on the 7th house cusp). The Sun conjunct Neptune on Sunday was square relationship Sun. Transiting Uranus is currently conjunct relationship Mercury/Neptune midpoint, Ebertin describes this as ‘convulsive disturbances in connection with the nervous system’! Neptune is involved in all of these and thus the link with poisons is revealed. Even if it turns out that Russia is not involved in this crime, these transits sure throw up serious confusion in the relationship of UK and Russia.
    Michael Harwood.

  4. If my chronology is correct, early 90’s, Skripal will have been betraying his Russian spy colleagues to MI6 possibly in the form of Christopher Steele, a then senior UK spook in Moscow. He of the Trump dossier. There’s a fair to good chance Steele might have been involved in the debriefing process. Wonder if that might play badly for the orange buffoon, among other potential outcomes?

    • These does seem to be a connection to Steel’s company and maybe himself. Though several different theories floating around as to why now to silence Skripal. Seems unlikely it would be an individual attack for an old betrayal since they’d know that Putin would be displeased at an international incident he hadn’t sanctioned. I would say we need to wait till the dust settles but where spooks are concerned the waters may just get muddier and the fog thicker.

  5. I am not sure how much we can stand up to Russia when they have control over a fair chunk of our gas supplies. The Uk could be far more self reliant in this regard, it maybe that we will be forced to exploit our own gas reserves in future regardless of public opinion.

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