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Russia Opens Criminal Cases Over Yulia Skripal's Poisoning, Glushkov's Murder

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal probe into the nerve agent attack on the daughter of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and the murder of former Aeroflot executive Glushkov.
Sputnik

As the committee specified, they were ready to cooperate with British colleagues to investigate both crimes.

Skripals' Poisoning

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, residing in the United Kingdom, and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury after being exposed to what British experts have recognized as Novichok, a Soviet-made nerve agent. Both still remain in a coma.

According to the latest reports from the UK intelligence, the nerve agent might have been sent in his daughter's suitcase in Moscow.

READ MORE: UK Intelligence: Novichok Was Planted in Luggage of Skripal's Daughter - Reports

Following the attack, UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday said Russia was "highly likely" responsible for it and announced that 23 Russian diplomats "identified as undeclared intelligence officers" would be expelled and given one week to leave. Moscow has promised to react reciprocally.

Responding to these accusations, the Russian Foreign Ministry refuted all the allegations and delivered a note, requesting a joint investigation into the case, to the UK Foreign Office. The proposal, however, was ignored by the British side.

The most recently, Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko announced that the expelled diplomats will leave the country on March 20.

"Together with family members, we are talking about some 80 people," the ambassador added.

READ MORE: UK, Russia Have to Move Beyond Setbacks Caused by Skripal Incident - UK Peer

Sergei Skripal was charged in Russia in 2006 for transferring secret information to the UK's MI-6 and was allowed to move to the United Kingdom in 2010 under a spy swap between the countries. The former agent has lived there for eight years.

WATCH: CCTV Footage of Skripal Right Before He Was Found Poisoned  

Glushkov's Murder

Nikolai Glushkov, the partner of deceased Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, convicted in absentia in Russia to eight years in prison for theft from the country's flagship airline Aeroflot, was recently found dead in his London home. Scotland Yard reported that at this stage the investigation considers the death of to man to be "unexplained." The investigation is currently underway.

READ MORE: Russian Fugitive Ex-Businessman Dies in London at 68

Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee told reporters on Friday that a criminal case had been opened into his murder in Russia.

"A criminal case has been opened ... into the murder of Russian citizen Nikolai Glushkov in London," she said.    

READ MORE: UK Probe Into Death of Former Aeroflot Top Manager Non-Transparent - Embassy

According to the committee, in the 1990s, Berezovsky created his "lobby" group in the management of Aeroflot, putting in place people from the structures under his control. Among them was the first deputy general director of Aeroflot Glushkov, deputy general director for commercial issues Alexander Krasnenker and others.

They promoted a number of decisions on the placement of funds and took out loans from Swiss firms controlled by Berezovsky and Glushkov, which resulted in hundreds of millions of rubles being stolen, the investigation believes.

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