WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Undetected: Sergei Skripal

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

This week, Megan and Alessia investigate the double agent life of Sergei Skripal and a sinister Russian plot.

Welcome to Undetected on Radio Free Hillsdale. Go undercover with your hosts, Alessia Sandala and Megan Lee, as they uncover the stories of spies from every country and time. The most thrilling, yet the most secret of lives in history. Welcome to this week's Undetected. I'm Megan. And I'm Alessia. Today, we'll be talking about another spy whose life and work remains relevant today,

Sergei Screeple. You may have heard of him on the news. Let's find out how he ended up a major news story. Sergei Screpo was born on June 23rd, 1951, in Kaliningrad, Klanengrad Oblast, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In 1979, after joining the army, Scripel was one of the first Russians to go into Afghanistan as part of the invasion. He later graduated from the diplomatic military academy in Moscow.

His accomplishments were spotted by the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service, and that was where Scripo's work as a spy took off. Scripple began his espionage career in Europe, called the first directorate, and he served overseas while disguised as a diplomat, and he was a respected figure among his colleagues at the GRU. But it was during his time in Europe, supposedly in 1995, that he was approached by British intelligence services with an offer to spy for them instead. In 1999, after Scripple had risen to the rank of colonel in the GRU, he quit. According to his friends, he was fed up with the corruption within it. After Scrippel supposedly started working for Boris Gromov, a commander of Soviet forces, he settled down with his family.

He married Lloyd Mila, his teenage sweetheart, his two children, Alexander, known as Sasha, and Gulia grew up in peaceful, happy times, but it was only the calm before the storm. In December of 2004, Scripple was arrested by agents of the Russian Federal Security Service. He was accused of treason against Russia. After confessing, Scribel was stripped of all his titles and awards. According to the Moscow Times, Scribble had been paid more than $100,000 by MA6, wired to a Spanish account. Two years later, Screeple was convicted of high treason and given a sentence of jail for 13 years. Some sources say he was sent to a labor camp in Mordovia instead.

He was over 50 years old at the time. But the Russian media didn't seem willing to accept Scriple's fate. They believed his time in prison was a light sentence for what he had done, and a daily newspaper said that in Soviet times, Screeple would have been shot. Luckily for Scripple, he didn't have to stay locked up for 13 years. In 2010, the FBI broke up an undercover spy ring in the United States, and Scripple was pardoned and exchanged in July, along with three others, for 10 Russian spies caught in the U.S.

Scripple was given refuge in the United Kingdom. But the life of a pardoned spy, while seemingly idealistic, was not all unicorns and rainbows. During the peaceful, low-profile eight years he spent in Salisbury, England, he lost his wife to cancer in 2012. Two years before, while Scripple was still locked up, his older brother and his son had died as well. But Scripple's daughter, Yulia, was able to visit frequently from Moscow. Some reports claim that Scripple went on frequent business trips and spent time with British intelligence agents.

They were trying to keep the former spy busy and keep him from post-usfulness syndrome. But the briefings and consultations Scripal participated in were being watched with suspicion by the Russians, who believed he was working against them and violating the unspoken role of secrecy that, that a pardoned spy should live by. Eight years after Screeple's release, things came to a head. On March 4th, 2018, at about 4.15 p.m., the police got an emergency call from someone in Salisbury, about two individuals ill on a bench.

The eyes were just completely white. They're wide open, but just white and frothing at the mouth. And then the man went stiff, his arms stopped moving. But they're still looking dead straight. After they were taken to the hospital, their identities were revealed. It was Sergei Screeple and his daughter, Yulia. Screeple's identity as a former Russian spy set off alarm bells in the head of the British police. Scruple and his daughter had been poisoned.

Authorities found the substance used to be A234, a military-grade nerve agent from the Novotok family, developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Oh my. It is an extremely dangerous substance, certainly not meant to be distributed at random or administered by accident. There's something very fishy happening here. What happens next? Yolia and Screeple were almost certainly targeted specifically. the police would identify two Russian military intelligence officers as the main suspects for using a perfume bottle to deliver the deadly poison. Named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Bolshev. They claim to be tourists that were told to visit Salisbury by their friends.

But despite Russia vehemently denying the allegations, Britain still believed them to be guilty. Tensions were high after this. Every Russian intelligence officer under diplomacy in the UK was expelled, followed by many other countries. Scripo has not appeared in public since the poison. and according to BBC, MI5 doubled down on the level of protection for defectors like him, which they acknowledged was overdue. Scripple deserves protection and there was a real threat to his life. At the time of the swap, Vladimir Putin, who was the prime minister of Russia at the time, made clear the extent of his hatred of spies like Scripple on live television.

You know, he said straight to the camera, a person who chooses this fate will regret it a thousand times. Screeple was good at remaining vigilant, especially after his near-death experience. But according to his name, neighbors, he missed Russia, as well as his wife and son. He faced a tough life and tough decisions for CERN, from working against his mother country to living out the rest of his days in fearful solitude. It seems you may leave the spy career, but the spy career will never leave you. In many cases, the sacrifice is one they will have to feel for the rest of their lives.

I'm Megan. And I'm Alessia. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Undetected. Tune in next week for the story of the Cuban spy and traitor Anna Monarch. on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.