Poisoned Russian spy wrote to Putin asking to be pardoned, friend claims

The former Russian double agent left close to death after a nerve agent attack in Salisbury had written to President Vladimir Putin asking to be pardoned and to be allowed to visit his home country, a friend has claimed.

Vladimir Timoshkov, a friend of Sergei Skripal, said he regretted being having spied for the British and wanted to return to Russia to visit his family.

In 2006 Colonel Skripal was jailed by the Russian for selling secrets to MI6 and came to Britain in 2010 as part of a spy swap, setting up home in Salisbury.

He remains in a critical condition with his daughter Yulia, three weeks after they were poisoned with the highly lethal nerve agent Novichok.

The attempted assassination sparked a diplomatic crisis between Russia and Britain.

On Friday, EU leaders promised an "unprecedented" diplomatic response to the attack after backing Theresa May's assertion that Moscow was responsible.

According to Mr Timoshkov, who says he had known him since school, Col Skripal, 66, did not see himself as a traitor as he had sworn an oath to the former Soviet Union.

"Many people shunned him. His classmates felt he had betrayed the Motherland," he told the BBC. "In 2012 he called me. We spoke for about half an hour. He called me from London.

“He denied he was a traitor... (he told me) he wrote to Vladimir Putin asking to be fully pardoned and to be allowed to visit Russia. His mother, brother and other relatives were (in Russia)."

In what is being interpreted as a cynical move Russia's ambassador to the UK sent his well wishes to Mrs Skripal and his daughter on Friday, saying he hoped for their recovery.

Alexander Yakovenko also wrote to Wiltshire Police detective sergeant Nick Bailey, who was left seriously ill after he was exposed to the poison as he went to the aid of the Skripals.

Detectives are still trying to established whether the nerve agent which left the Skripals fighting for their lives was inserted into Col Skripal’s car or unwittingly brought from Russia to Britain by Yulia in her suitcase, possibly secreted in a present or item of clothing.

On Friday police officers in chemical protection suits removed the bench onto which Skripals collapsed shortly after leaving Zizzi’s restaurant in Salisbury following the attack.

It is understood the bench has been taken to the Ministry of Defence’s Porton Down laboratory for closer examination.

The move signals the beginning of the end of the overtly visible part of the investigation into who targeted the Skripals, how they did it and, crucially, on whose orders.

It came as a relief to the people of Salisbury.

“I’m so glad to see it go,” said Jennifer McMenamin, 66, a school cleaner from Salisbury, who joined a small group of shoppers to watch. “To think what happened to those poor people on that bench. It makes you wonder what else goes on in the world.

“Perhaps Salisbury can start getting back to normal now. It’s been like a ghost town since it happened.”

Scotland Yard said: “The park  bench that Sergei and Yulia Skripal were sitting on when they were found unwell in Salisbury is being removed to preserve it as a potential crime exhibit as part of the investigation into the attempted murder.”

On hearing it had been taken away one nearby cafe owner said simply: "It's gone? Thank God for that."