31 Facts About Sergei Skripal

Sergei Viktorovich Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the UK's intelligence services during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Sergei Skripal settled in the UK in 2010 following the Illegals Programme spy swap.

Sergei Skripal was discharged from hospital on 18 May 2018.

Sergei Skripal was born in Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russian SFSR, on 23 June 1951.

Sergei Skripal's father worked for a land improvement contractor, while his mother was employed with the local Council of Deputies.

Sergei Skripal grew up in the town of Ozyorsk, in Kaliningrad Oblast.

In 1972, Skripal completed the military engineering school in Kaliningrad named Zhdanov, located in the village of Borisovo with the qualification of a sapper-paratrooper.

Sergei Skripal was co-opted to the military intelligence from the Airborne Troops.

In 1996, due to his diabetes, Sergei Skripal was sent back to Moscow, where he went on to work in the GRU headquarters and for a while was acting director of the GRU personnel department.

Sergei Skripal held the rank of colonel when he retired, due to his inadequate health condition, in 1999.

Sergei Skripal continued to make trips to Spain, where he had a house near Malaga at his disposal, provided by his handlers.

Sergei Skripal was alleged to have blown the cover of 300 Russian agents.

From 2001, Sergei Skripal worked in the Ministry of Municipalities of the Government of Moscow Oblast.

In December 2004, Sergei Skripal was arrested outside his house in Moscow's Krylatskoye District shortly after returning from Britain.

Sergei Skripal was sentenced to 13 years in a high-security detention facility; he was stripped of his military rank and decorations.

Sergei Skripal's lawyers appealed the sentence, which was upheld by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court on 30 November 2006.

In July 2010, Sergei Skripal was pardoned by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The UK government insisted on Sergei Skripal being included in the swap.

Sergei Skripal moved to Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he purchased a house in 2011.

Sergei Skripal's daughter returned to Moscow in 2014 and worked in sales.

Sergei Skripal's son died aged 43 in March 2017, in unknown circumstances, on a visit to Saint Petersburg; Skripal's older brother died within the two years before the poisoning.

In May 2018, The New York Times reported that Sergei Skripal, though retired, was "still in the game".

Russian exile Valery Morozov told Channel 4 News Sergei Skripal was still working and in regular contact with military intelligence officers at the Russian Embassy.

On 28 September 2018, the news magazine Focus reported, referring to a statement of a senior official from NATO's Allied Command Counter-Intelligence Unit in Mons, that until 2017 Sergei Skripal worked for four intelligence agencies of NATO countries.

Sergei Skripal provided information to the Estonian secret service in Tallinn, which enabled them to identify three active Russian undercover operatives.

Sergei Skripal worked with the Spanish secret service Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, informing the agency about the Russian organized crime in the Spanish region of Costa del Sol.

Mark Urban reported that in 2017 Sergei Skripal was scheduled to meet with the Swiss Intelligence Service of the Federation.

In mid-March 2018, Russia said that its diplomats were denied access to both Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who is a Russian national.

Viktoria Sergei Skripal had intended to travel to Britain to take Yulia back to Russia.

On 18 May 2018, Sergei Skripal was discharged from the hospital.

On 16 February 2019, The Sunday Times reported, without identified sources, that Sergei Skripal "has suffered a deterioration in his health and is being treated by doctors".