All language subtitles for The_Salisbury_Poisonings_A_Spy_Next_Door_2026[_32876]

(regal fanfare playing)

(sheep bleating)

Director: So, Viktor, what's
your favourite British food?

Do you feel safe here?

(sinister music)

Reporter: Now to an
extraordinary story here in UK.

Reporter: Salisbury
is at the centre

of a major incident tonight

involving a former Russian spy.

Reporter: A quiet, small, sleepy
city in southern England.

Reporter: Sergei Skripal,

a colonel in
military intelligence,

accused of spying
for Britain's MI6.

Reporter: The lingering
question, who did it?

(foreboding music)

Reporter: Moscow might deny it,
but many point the finger

of blame squarely at Russia.

Reporter: Mysterious case
of a poisoned Russian agent

getting even stranger tonight.

Reporter: Now it's murder.

Reporter: A counterfeit bottle
of designer perfume,

the suspected weapon.

Neil: There was enough poison
in that tiny bottle

to kill 10,000 people.

Trump: The security council
is called to order.

Reporter: What started in
a placid cathedral town

has now led to the biggest
diplomatic face-off in years.

I give the floor to the Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom.

Thank you.

(speaking in Russian)

(Viktor speaking)

(sinister beat)

(birds singing)

(bells ringing distantly)

Meg: Salisbury's a small city.

Local people call it Smallsbury
for that reason.

(jaunty music)

I amongst many, many
other people in Salisbury

have a favourite place to go
and sit

on one of the many benches
down by the river.

The whole area is so magical.

Archive: Here in the heart
of Wiltshire lies Salisbury.

Founded some 800 years ago,

this mediaeval city
is most famous

for its magnificent cathedral.

Dominating the skyline,
its spire, Britain's tallest,

rising some 404ft
soars heavenward.

(bells ringing)

Caller: Seven, four....

Archive: Oh, how the locals
love to ring those bells.

Kelvin: I value normal life

and Salisbury is a provincial
corner of England.

Big things don't tend to happen
in places like that.

(accordion playing)

(dramatic music)

(suspenseful music)

It was my first kind of week
as a radio reporter

at the local radio station.

When I got the job, they said,
oh, you'll be getting to do

really local stories,

you know, the giant vegetables,

the village fair,
the flower show.

And I thought, oh, that's great,
a really good kind of way for me

to learn what I'm doing.

(phone ringing)
And then the phone rang,

and I...it just changed
everything, really.

It was my news editor
who had phoned me

and she said two people
were having a medical incident

that the police
are dealing with.

Can you go and cover this?

So I said to myself,
don't worry.

Nothing happens in Salisbury.

So, then I got down there.

First week on the job.

You don't expect to see
two people on a bench,

foaming at the mouth.

I've never seen anyone having
a drug overdose before.

I can't even remember
how to use a Dictaphone,

it's been so long ago.

Well, I'm now at the Maltings

where these two people were
found collapsed.

They are now
in a critical condition

at Salisbury District Hospital.

(sirens wailing)

Stephen: We'd had a really
busy weekend.

I was looking after the
intensive care unit by myself.

Things had quietened down a bit.

I got a phone call from one of
my colleagues who said, Steve,

there's two drug overdose
patients coming in.

They both sound really unwell.

Can you come and give me a hand?

The two patients came in...

(suspenseful music)

...and immediately
this didn't look right.

There was a guy in his 60s,

smartly dressed,
a suit and jacket,

and a girl in her 30s.

They didn't look like
your conventional

recreational drug
overdose patients.

Then I became aware of his name,

Sergei Skripal, and I thought,
this is a little bit odd,

you know, for Salisbury.

I started to initiate
intensive care,

and Sergei is breathing, just.

He's not speaking.

He's sitting bolt upright,
almost like a statue.

-Producer: Eyes closed?
-Eyes were open,

but he was absolutely rigid.

It was the most
bizarre presentation.

And it suddenly began
to dawn on me

that something has poisoned
these people.

At that moment, somebody came up
to me and said, Dr Cockroft,

I've just googled Sergei Skripal

and you're not going to believe
what I've just found out.

So, I went and looked
and there it was.

He had a Wikipedia page.

I thought, right, okay...

this is beginning to smell
a bit fishy, this.

Amber Rudd: When I first heard
about this, I was in London...

(suspenseful music)

...and I got a call
from my office

telling me that an incident
had taken place

and they had concerns about it.

You're not called on every
incident as Home Secretary.

You're called out for something
of national significance.

Theresa May: The key role
of a prime minister obviously

is to ensure that you keep
the country safe.

And this attack took place in,
in, if you like,

the heart of middle England.

Amber Rudd: And so we had
a COBRA meeting.

And the purpose of COBRA is to
bring all the different people

involved together
so that decisions can be made.

Right from the start,
it was clear to me

that this wasn't just
a poisoning,

but it was an
attempted assassination.

The target being Sergei Skripal,

and given his background as a
Russian intelligence officer...

there was only one entity,
the Russian State,

that was possibly responsible.

Amber Rudd: For a hostile state
to do that

in a British town...
city was extraordinary.

But I think really
the dominant feeling was

concern about
this lethal poison,

because initially at COBRA,
we didn't know what it was.

But two people
had gone into a coma.

Mark: In the past, while
carrying out assassinations,

the Russians have used
a range of different poisons,

and so we had a high degree
of suspicion

that the public was at risk.

Amber Rudd: The atmosphere
in COBRA was tense.

Cabinet ministers had different
views about how fast

we should go
in terms of attributing

and responding to Russia.

Theresa May: When you're faced
with something like this,

sometimes in today's world,

the temptation is
to say something immediately.

Actually, you just have to take
a deep breath and step back

and be very clear that
there's a longer-term aim here,

which is making sure we
absolutely hold them to account.

You just have to be
a bit careful

and wait until you've absolutely
got the evidence.

(siren wailing)

Neil: In 2018,
I was the national lead

for counterterrorism policing.

Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary
of the day...

How can I put it?

"What are you doing about it,
Basu?"

You know, "the Prime Minister
needs your help."

(tense music)

First, how quickly can you prove

this is an assassination plot?

Second, find out exactly
what this poison is

and tell me what
kind of resources you need

from the rest of government

to help you bring this
under control,

which might involve
using the military.

Meg: I heard
a helicopter overhead.

Which is unusual.

Emma: Then it was like,
why are the military here?

Why are there, like,
senior police officers here?

You know, this seems a bit of
an overreaction to it being,

you know, a drug overdose
or, you know,

just a medical episode.

What's really going on?

And I remember them looking
very, very worried.

Okay, good evening,
ladies and gentlemen.

The focus at this moment
in trying to establish

what has caused these people
to become critically ill,

and we currently do not believe
there is any risk

to the wider public.

Thank you.

Emma: You know, they were
trying to reassure people

that everything's
absolutely fine.

But...

clearly it wasn't.

So I'd be on the phone like,

"Yeah, I think we're gonna need
backup here."

Go on, keep going...

And then, that tiny little story

suddenly exploded into
this international news story.

The biggest story in the world.

Two people in the town
of Salisbury in England

were admitted to hospital
after being exposed

to an unknown substance.

Salisbury District Hospital
is at the centre

of a major incident tonight
involving a former Russian spy.

Nearly 200 British troops have
been called in to help police

with the investigation.

Reporter: Moscow might deny it,
but many

point the finger of blame
squarely at Russia.

Kelvin: No one expects
terrible things

to happen in their community.

And this was a real incident in
which the ugliness of the world

was suddenly on our doorstep.

Emma: There were journalists
literally everywhere.

You know, CNN, you've got,
you know, people from France

just wandering around the city

trying to get a bit more
information.

Which country?

That's the United States
of America.

Okay then. What brings you here?

Well, I'm the foreign
correspondent for ABC.

And what brings us here is you.

Newsreader: These images show
the former Russian military

intelligence colonel
buying sausages

and lottery scratch cards
from a shop close to his home.

(mysterious music)

Meg: We were living next to this
perfectly normal guy,

and turns out
that he was a Russian spy.

You wouldn't dream it,
would you?

Mark: Unlike most people
in Salisbury,

I knew rather a lot
about Sergei Skripal.

A couple of years before
all of this happened,

I wanted to write a book about
defected Russian spies.

And strangely enough,

I didn't have to go through
the intelligence services

or the Foreign Office
to get to meet him.

He was living an open life.

He was on the electoral register
under his own name.

So he clearly felt safe.

And when I went to meet Sergei
in his home,

he was standing outside
the house ready to greet me.

My impression of him was that

he was a typical
Soviet military guy

or a typical Desantnik,

which is a paratrooper
in Russian.

You know, big, physically
self-confident.

Sort of no nonsense,
you know, plain speaking,

deadpan sense of humour.

The sort of person you
wouldn't want to antagonise.

We went through the front door,
and you know,

being a journalist, you...

You just sort of take in
the details, I suppose.

And curiously,

he was sort of mid-construction
with an Airfix kit

of HMS Victory,

which he told me
he'd been to visit.

(haunting Russian folk music)

I think the sort of enigma about
Sergei, in this respect,

was that...

on the one hand,
he wanted me to understand

that he had a love
of English history,

but on the other hand,

he remained a sort of
patriotic Russian.

He liked the songs
and the old Soviet movies.

He even had Russian TV on
when I arrived.

I think these were all things
that gave him a sort of happy,

nostalgic glow.

I certainly think he would have
regarded the things he did

as a Russian
intelligence officer

with a lot of pride.

Another thing I noticed
on the bookcase,

sort of directly ahead of me
as I was talking to him

as we did our interviews,

was a little resin model

of a very typical twee
English country cottage.

The sort of thing you could buy
in a souvenir shop.

And at the time, um,
I noticed it,

but I didn't really understand
its significance.

But he explained later on,

just how big a part
of his whole story

that English country cottage
actually was.

(suspenseful music)

Reporter: Troops from Wiltshire

with training
in chemical warfare

and Royal Marines from Somerset
have been sent to Salisbury.

Reporter: Almost 700
investigators are at work.

We're not quite sure
what's gonna happen

in the next couple of hours.

There's still very much more
questions than answers.

There was a lot of panic.

You know, why are there people
walking around in hazmats?

Where is this chemical?
What is it?

What could it do to you?

Reporter: British soldiers
in hazmat suits

search for possible
contamination in the area

where former Russian spy
Sergei Skripal

and his daughter were found.

Suddenly, we had cordons,
we had public health warnings.

We'd been told,
"Don't pick up rubbish."

And so, there's considerable
worry in the community.

I think people felt we were
a city under attack.

"A strange and unreal time."

"Did this really happen
in our special city?"

"Living amongst spies?"

"Do we now look at everyone
with suspicion?"

"Eerie silence."

"The ducks have gone,
the rats moved in..."

"One day,
normality will return."

At least that's what I hope.

Amber Rudd: The job of
the Home Secretary

in the middle of all this
is to reassure the public.

Whatever I was feeling,

and a lot of it was pretty
uncomfortable and concerned,

my job was to go out there

and tell them
that we have got this.

They needn't be worried because
we know what we're doing.

Can you guarantee the public
their safety?

Of course, I can guarantee
the public their safety.

You know,
the public don't want to hear

we're not actually very sure
what they this is

or where it's come from
or where else it could be.

They want to know that their
government is on top of this

and is going to keep them safe.
And that's what you have to say.

Didn't always feel that, but
that was my job to convey it.

These are all questions
I will want answered.

Producer: Keep calm
and carry on.

Keep calm and carry on.

(helicopter whirring)

Reporter: Well then, Joanna,
just in the last half an hour,

police officers,
military personnel

and specialist officers

have been getting kitted up
with those

forensic suits and gas masks
that we've been seeing.

Neil: There was huge pressure
to get it right,

but there is no playbook
for this.

We're looking
for expert assassins.

I'm not expecting them to leave
their fingerprints

or leave their DNA
at a crime scene.

We were literally faced
with two individuals

who had fallen seriously ill
on a park bench in Salisbury.

So the park bench
became a crime scene.

That was our start point.

The first thing
you're trying to do

is trying to track
every movement

going back as long as
you possibly can

before the park bench,

'cause we want to know
how the victims

came into contact
with the poison.

We knew they went to
the restaurant to have a meal.

Before that,
we know they went to a pub,

um, where they have a drink.

You're eventually getting
to the car,

you're eventually going
back to the house.

Dean: We were gradually finding
traces of the poison used,

and the highest detection rate
was the door handle

of their home address.

One theory is that they had
sprayed it on the door handle,

and when Sergei and Yulia
came out and closed the door,

that's the time
when they were poisoned.

(helicopter whirring)
(distant sirens)

The next job is to find
the perpetrators on CCTV.

Sadly, there was no CCTV, um,
at Christie Miller Road.

So we had to collect hundreds of
thousands of hours of footage

from across Salisbury
town centre.

But it was looking for a needle
in a haystack.

What does a Russian agent
look like?

Christo: I think there's
a general understanding

that there are spies around us,

but...

Russian spies
are literally everywhere.

(playful music)

I think there is a lack
of understanding

for most of the people
of how dangerous it is.

It's not just snooping around,

it's not just secret back-alley
conversations and recruitment,

it's assassinations,
it's explosions,

it's sabotage,

it's poisoning the water systems
of countries.

All of that actually
does happen.

Watch this.

Russian operatives, they
literally have licence to kill.

There's a law in Russia
that allows them to pursue

enemies of the state
that are deemed traitors.

Putin calls Russians
who change sides, rabid dogs,

he calls them animals,
he calls them scum of the earth.

And they can go and work
for their overlords in the West.

But somebody who betrays
the motherland

should be burned alive.

(dramatic Russian music)
And for new recruits,

that becomes
part of your fabric,

part of your mentality,

and you'll be chasing enemies
of the state,

and you can kill them,
and you should kill them...

because successful killers
get an award.

That's why...

hundreds of these
young people...

become killers
for their country.

(suspenseful music)

But then I discovered
that actually, you can

expose espionage operations
using breadcrumbs of data.

Every person does that
in their own life,

leaves these breadcrumbs behind.

Every time you even look at
your phone, you leave a trace.

Every time you buy a ticket
to go into the subway,

every time you buy lunch
with your phone,

every time you book a hotel,

you leave
a digital trace behind.

And I thought, well, why don't
we just use that digital trace

to try to expose names of spies
involved in assassinations,

poisonings,

but also to prove who gave them
carte blanche

to go around the world
and create havoc.

How many Russian agents have you
uncovered, do you think?

Probably...definitely more than
a thousand,

I would say in the range
of 4 to 5,000.

Christo Grozev, who identified
the Russians involved

in poisoning Putin opposition
leader, Alexei Navalny.

Christo was just placed on
Russia's wanted list.

I think it's a fatwa
of some sort.

I mean, it's like a message that
to other journalists as well

that don't come
and don't meddle into...

Don't do investigations
into Russia.

And yet you continue to do it.

Um, and you
more than anyone know

at what possible cost.

It's become a sort of
an obsession,

and if a day passes without me

having found at least
a couple of spies,

I would really, really feel
a withdrawal.

But what really drives me
and a lot of my colleagues is

the cat-and-mouse nature of it
and the game of it.

(playful music)

And what is interesting is that

I started with the case
of the Skripal poisonings.

We wanted to be the first to
crack it for the world to know.

And so the question was:
who were the assassins?

So we assumed that they would
have been in Britain between

March 2nd and March 5th.

So I'm like, hm,

if we were able to get all the
passenger lists of all flights

into London from Russia
on these days...

maybe we can find these guys.

And I found...

two passengers
travelling together.

And look at this,
the passport numbers

are only three digits apart.

Two people sat next to each
other with two passports

issued literally
within an hour of one another.

That's not possible.

That sort of thing doesn't
naturally happen.

And then the question was,
are these real names

and real people,
or are they fake?

It was just
a breadcrumb of data,

but that's literally where
it all began for us.

(helicopter whirring)

Reporter: Police say the man
and his daughter

remain critically ill
in hospital,

and the case is being treated
as attempted murder.

Amber Rudd: When I went
to the hospital

to talk to
the medical staff there...

survival of the Skripals
looked in doubt.

(tense music)

And the senior consultant
in charge was tired,

to say the least, and was,
you know, there were doctors,

medical people at their best,

trying to keep
these two people alive.

Stephen: It was chaotic.
It became more and more chaotic

as the week went on.

Yulia and Sergei remained
extremely unwell.

They were in an induced coma
and I...

I honestly thought
they were going to die.

They had very unusual symptoms,

the slow heart rate,
the low blood pressure,

the slow respiratory rate,
the pinpoint pupils.

There was no way this was
a conventional poisoning.

But this was something far,
far darker.

(wind howling)

Newsreader: British police
now believe

that former Russian spy
Sergei Skripal

and his daughter Yulia

were poisoned
with a nerve agent.

(sinister music)

Amber Rudd: After it had been
tested at Porton Down,

they were able to explain that
this had been

a poisoning of Novichok.

Reporter: Novichok is the name
for a family of nerve agents

said to be the most deadly
ever created.

It's a terrifying word,
Novichok,

and then most of us were
hearing it for the first time.

You learn about
quite how lethal it is.

Only a tiny amount was needed
to potentially kill somebody.

We were told it was sort of
Russia's favourite agent,

Putin's, particularly.

Richard: Putin was sending
a very clear message.

You know, assassination has been
part of Russian political life

since the Middle Ages.

I mean, it was used by
the Tsars.

And the interesting thing

is it's usually used
against people

who the Russians
would categorise as traitors.

I mean, that means in Russian
eyes, spying for the West.

I mean, when I was in MI6,

Russian military intelligence
officers were extremely angry

about the way that they had
emerged from the Cold War.

And the, sort of, breakup
of the Soviet Empire.

You know, it was a good time
to recruit Russians.

(chuckles)

Mark: Putin has described
the collapse of Soviet Union

as the greatest tragedy
of the 20th Century.

And in some ways,

I think Skripal would also have
seen it as a great tragedy.

It's one of those curious
things, isn't it,

about human nature that people
can have the same starting point

but end up
in very different places

or mentalities about things.

Reporter: The ruble has lost
another 10% of its value

against the dollar
since the start of the year.

Mark: In the mid-1990s,
when everything in Russia

was really going haywire,

oligarchs gobbling up
key sectors of industry.

And so Putin has come
to the conclusion

that he's got to rebuild,
in effect, the Soviet Union,

whereas Skripal has come to
the conclusion

that, no, it's gone,

and that his primary
interest is to make sure

that he and his family
are looked after.

And so MI6 gave him
the opportunity to get out.

(bells tolling)

Reporter: The historic city
of Salisbury.

Population around 50,000

and the location of the first
chemical weapons attack

in this country.

Good evening, ladies and gents.
I'm Keir Pritchard,

the Chief Constable
for Wiltshire...

Meg: At one
of our public meetings,

we were told that a nerve agent
had been used,

and it was one of those moments
where you think,

"Well, that's actually quite
serious."

The agent couldn't possibly
still be out

there somewhere in Salisbury.

Apparently, it would have taken
only a few drops to have killed,

I think it was 4,000 people.

And then we were told exactly
where it had come from.

Reporter: This afternoon,
the UK released a statement

saying they had pinpointed a
Russian military research base

as the place
that produced the Novichok.

Theresa May: The intelligence
made very clear

that Russia had been responsible
for this.

I mean, we have international
laws and rules

about not using
chemical weapons.

So there's that point
in time where

you have to start
preparing for the worst.

(press clamouring)

Will this government stand up
to Russia

if a link is proved?

Amber Rudd: There were people
who thought

we should treat this attack
as an act of war.

(suspenseful music)

And so the Prime Minister
decided it was time

to call out Russia.

Order!

Order!

Order!

I say to members, Order!

Members must calm down.

It's as simple
and incontestable as that.

(jeering)

Statement, the Prime Minister.

Hear, hear!

With permission, Mr Speaker,
I would like to update the House

on the incident in Salisbury,
and the steps we are...

Amber Rudd: It was
a very serious moment.

House was packed,
and it was incredibly quiet.

And you know, the House
of Commons is usually...

There's a lot of kind of
shouting and name-calling

and argy-bargy.

Not that day.

As a nation that believes in
justice and the rule of law,

it is essential that we proceed
in the right way.

Led not by speculation,
but by the evidence.

Hear, hear.

Amber Rudd: I was feeling

pretty uncomfortable
and concerned.

Producer: Was Theresa feeling
the same way?

Did she ever tell you about how
she was feeling?

(laughs) No, the Prime Minister
doesn't tell you her feelings.

It is now clear that Mr Skripal
and his daughter were poisoned

with a military-grade
nerve agent

of a type developed by Russia.

This is part of a group of nerve
agents known as Novichok.

The government has concluded
that it is highly likely

that Russia was responsible
for the act against

Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

-Hear, hear!
-Mr Speaker,

this attempted murder using
a weapons-grade nerve agent

in a British town was not just
a crime against the Skripals.

It was an indiscriminate
and reckless act

against the United Kingdom,

putting the lives
of innocent civilians at risk.

And we will not tolerate
such a brazen attempt

to murder innocent civilians
on our soil.

I commend this statement
to the House.

Order! Order!

Mark: Of course, attributing
these attacks was important,

but I felt we needed
to go further,

um, and actually
impose significant sanctions.

Amber Rudd: Our ambassador was
dispatched...

...military-grade nerve agent...

Amber Rudd: ...because
whatever we did,

it had to be done in unity
with other countries,

but we didn't know how each
country would actually respond.

(tense music)

Trump: Getting along with Russia

would be a good thing,

not a bad thing.

And just about everybody
agrees to that,

except very stupid people.

It was really challenging,

partly because
of Russian disinformation.

They say we have actual facts
that you did it.

Okay, if you have facts, come to
us, put the facts on the table.

There's something in the psyche
of the Russian state

which long pre-dates
the Putin regime...

President Putin,
is Russia behind the poisoning?

Mark: ...in which lying

and everyone knowing that
you're lying is a sign of power,

because you can lie and you
aren't held accountable for it.

(speaking in Russian)

I thought it was grotesque
seeing these people mocking us,

telling these colourful lies.

It caused a certain amount
of confusion.

(speaking in Russian)

(laughter)

Richard: I don't think anyone
really anticipated

how far relations between Russia
and the West would go belly up.

(ominous music)

Putin's attitude to the West
had changed.

(speaking in Russian)

Well, my last visit
to Moscow was...

probably the beginning of 2004.

Tony Blair asked my advice,

whether the UK couldn't have
a different relationship

with this Russian leader.

And I was certainly one of
the people that said to Blair,

"Well, why not give it a try?"

You know, we were quite keen,

and I mean, we, I'm talking
almost generally about the West,

to try and have
a different relationship

with a different sort of
Russian leader.

I don't think
we initially saw him

as this autocrat he's become.

(suspenseful music)

The investigation was still
working at incredible pace.

Neil: Our whole team had been
working night and day on this.

Going through it frame by frame,

tens of thousands of hours

of closed-circuit
television footage.

And then I remember
getting the call from Dean

and going into Dean's office.

He said, I've got a photograph
of the suspect in the case.

Dean: They came into the country
on false identities.

On the Sunday, 4th of March,

the suspects travelled down
to Salisbury,

they walked around
the town centre

and then,
for a short period of time,

their movements
are not captured by CCTV,

but we're confident they went to
the home address of Sergei,

placed Novichok
on the door handle.

They then left and immediately
flew out of the country

via Heathrow Airport,
returning to Moscow in Russia.

Neil: So we're sitting there
thinking how brilliant it was

to have images of these people.

Dean: The key outstanding issue,
though, was the Novichok.

How did it get into the country,
and where was it now?

Neil: We were pretty sure

they've discarded the Novichok
in Salisbury.

It could've been in the park,
it could've been in the bin,

it could've been thrown
in the river.

And I was getting paranoid
that somebody else was gonna

potentially fall seriously ill
or...or die.

Charlie: I had just moved
into my place.

(mysterious music)

It was a place that houses
people that need to be rehoused.

And I was happy as punch
to move in.

I was planning for Dawn
to move in.

I'd known her for 16 months,

so we'd probably been an item
for a year of that.

And she was a very, very kind,
loving person.

Yeah, we were quite happy
together.

(horn tooting)

I used to go around Salisbury
and get things for the house.

There's a few charity places.

They would always leave unwanted
stuff out the back.

(eerie music)

They're very large bins,
you could climb in them,

they were that big.

That's where I'd find
most of my things, yeah.

It did carry a bit of a stigma
being seen in a bin...

(chuckles)

...but, uh, it reaped
its rewards.

Very occasionally, I'd find
jewellery and give it to Dawn.

She often made comments about
getting her an engagement ring,

so I would always dig
to the bottom

just in case I'd find that...
that ring.

And then one time,
I couldn't believe it.

Right at the bottom was a very
expensive-looking perfume.

I didn't give it to Dawn
immediately, it just sat around.

I was waiting
for the right time.

Reporter: It had been feared
that neither Sergei Skripal

nor his daughter Yulia
would ever recover

from the nerve agent attack.

But now, after a month
in a coma

in Salisbury District Hospital,

there was this announcement.

(speaking in Russian)

I didn't realise she was going
to come on the television.

And I became slightly emotional.

(haunting music)

When I last saw her,
she was desperately unwell.

Was trying pull at the tube
that was in her trachea,

and she was terrified.

But during that time,
I was talking to her,

uh, reassuring her
that she was safe.

And meanwhile, Sergei next door,
he was,

"When I get out of here,
I'm going to kill these...

you know,
I know who's done this.

I'll kill the fuckers."

Sergei, you can't say that!

You know, everything he said
was being recorded.

At any one time,
there were four police officers

who were clearly
very heavily armed,

and there was always
a people carrier

with other police officers
in the car park.

And it was like that
until they were discharged.

Reporter: Sergei Skripal's home

is still a closely guarded
crime scene,

As to where he and his daughter
are now,

well, that's a secret.

It's a mystery, you know,
no one knows...

he got poisoned,
he was in hospital,

and then he disappeared.

I'd imagine Yulia

is leading more of a normal life
than her father.

You know, you do think,
where did he end up?

(haunting Russian folk music)

(indistinct shouting
and cheering)

(cheering)

(suspenseful music)

Mark: Basically,
Sergei's posting to Madrid

produced a moment
of opportunity.

MI6 had been looking at him
for a while.

Often these targets
for cultivation,

it's through things like
interception of communications.

Hello?

They hear them on
the phone moaning.

They haven't got
enough money, or

they don't like what's going on
at home politically.

"I'm disgusted with the collapse
of Soviet power."

- (speaking in Russian)
-But there's no point

crying over spilt milk.

(speaking in Russian)

And it's really every man
and woman

for themselves.

So the officer who was sent
to cultivate Skripal

was posing as a businessman.

(speaking in Russian)

They had multiple meetings,
various contacts.

Restaurants, and once or twice
I think they went to nightclubs,

and Skripal felt they were
becoming actual friends.

I've heard it described
by a former MI6 officer

as, you know, a seduction
in which you're using

all your intelligence and guile
and charm and persuasiveness...

to get someone to make the worst
mistake of their lives.

Uh, in other words, to turn
traitor, in Russian terms.

(speaking in Russian)

This MI6 officer,
he brought presents.

And one of the presents
he brought

was this little resin model of a
typical English country cottage.

And clearly, to him...

(poignant music)

...meant a great deal.

(speaking in Russian)

In some ways, I suppose

it sort of symbolised his dream
of oldie England

or Little England, or however
you want to put it.

Richard: The myth of England
is quite powerful.

A lot of the best spies
are attracted by the myth.

Producer: What is the myth?

Well, it's been created
over time.

It's a combination of fact
and fiction.

(jaunty music)

(cheering)

(background laughter)

Richard: This country
can offer something

which is pretty unique.

-Producer: The brand is good?
-Well, the brand is bloody good.

Excuse my language, but...
(chuckles)

You don't spy unless there's
a damn good reason for it.

It's a massive risk for them
to take.

(wind whistling)

(brooding music)

The information MI6 got from him
was technicolour.

You know, this was not just
a vivid picture

of the internal structure
and machinations

of Russian
intelligence services,

it was the whole thing.

John: Putin is a man
who requires loyalty

in order to stay in the exalted
position that he has.

It's about instilling fear.

If anybody ever betrays him,

they will never be forgiven.

In a sense, it's a sign
of his own weakness.

(foreboding music)

It's not as if
he's deeply unpopular

amongst the Russian people,

but those close to him know the
level of corruption around him.

And know how brutal he is.

And many of them despise
Putin's leadership

and know that Russia
could actually do better

with a different type of leader.

It takes incredible bravery
and courage for individuals

to decide that they're going to
buck their own system

and they're going to
follow their values.

(foreboding music intensifies)

You know the risks associated...

and you still do it.

If you're risking your life
for something,

you rarely risk your life
just for a bit more money.

It has to be something more
fundamental than that.

Mark: At a certain point,

the spy hunters in Moscow,

they got these indications
that there were some leaks.

(suspenseful music)

Russian intelligence had been
watching Sergei for a while.

One of the things you'd have to
say about Sergei Skripal

is that he didn't have
a very finely developed sense

of when he was in danger,

right up until, you know,
the time when he was lifted.

(banging)

(indistinct shouting)

(speaking in Russian)

(applause)

John: If your upbringing
is in a country like Russia,

then you know what the price
of betraying your country is.

Sergei Skripal was sentenced
to 13 years of hard labour

in one of Russia's
brutal prison camps,

and of course, many people who
go into those labour camps

aren't expected to survive.

And the only way
of getting them out

is offering the Russians
something that they badly want

in return for something
which you would rather like.

(siren wailing)

Luckily for Skripal,

in the early months of 2010,

an opportunity came.
(hopeful music)

Speculation is reaching
fever pitch

that the biggest spy swap
since the end of the Cold War

is about to take place.

Reporter: An American official
says CIA chief Leon Panetta

personally worked out the deal.

Leon Panetta, my US Counterpart,
called me and said,

"We have caught and arrested
a network of sleeper agents,

Russian spies,
who were deeply embedded

inside the American system.

The Russians really want
these people back,

and we're going to obviously
negotiate terms for that.

"Is there anybody on your side

who you'd like to see extracted
from Russia?"

And so I said, "Yes."

Reporter: A few hours earlier,
the swap itself

occurred at Vienna Airport.

Reporter: 10 Russian agents who
confessed to spying in America

have arrived in Moscow,
and four Russians

who'd confessed to spying
for the West

have arrived in Britain.

Mark: At that time...

the relationship
between Putin and the West

was good enough for Sergei
to consider his own safety

to be pretty much airtight.

He definitely did not consider

that an assassination unit would
be turning up on his doorstep.

(bells ringing distantly)

Emma: It did actually feel
like things

were getting back to normal.

We couldn't be sure
that we were safe but...

the police, they seemed
so chilled about it.

You know, if the future king
and queen of England

are in Salisbury, you know,
speaking to people,

it's surely over by this point,
isn't it?

(suspenseful music)

Meg: Everything calmed down,

we got the city back,

the ducks returned,

and it was just a joy.

I think everyone was happy
to celebrate being safe again.

We had such an enjoyable time,
very special.

Kelvin: It was
a magnificent day.

And in this church...

(distant singing)

...we also had a ceremony
of going out into the Maltings,

where it had all taken place.

It was a way of saying,
actually, this is our city,

and, uh, we have our values.

This water of new life,
I symbolically cleanse our city.

(cheering and laughing)

Emma: The cleansing of the city
of Novichok

was quite a thing to see.

(ominous music)

But there was part of me that
thought, "This is not over yet."

It was just a normal Saturday.

We were just watching
a bit of daytime TV,

and...

I decided to give Dawn
the perfume which I'd found.

(foreboding music)

She'd sprayed it,
and gave it a sniff,

then applied it on her wrists.

But it was strange.

A perfume with no smell.

A short while after that,
she said she felt peculiar.

She left to go to the bathroom
and I, um, heard a clonk.

I went in the bathroom,

and she wouldn't...
wouldn't respond.

Yeah, it's...

Sorry, yeah.

Yeah.

(suspenseful music)

Phoned 999,

before I become ill myself.

Neil: Paramedics had been
called to the house.

Salisbury police
seemed very confused.

They've immediately jumped to
the conclusion

that this is just a couple
of drug addicts,

which is a terrible assumption

because she wasn't
a drug addict.

She was a...

you know, a loving mum of three.

It was the worst-case scenario.

Reporter: The nerve agent
incident

that's cast a shadow
over Salisbury

has taken a serious turn
for the worst.

Now it's murder.

It was just the hugest shock.

Reporter: Dawn Sturgess died
following exposure to Novichok.

Emma: I was the first person at
the scene where she was found.

I just burst into tears.

This woman, you know,
this innocent woman...

It could've been me.
It could've been any of us.

I also felt incredibly sorry for
Charlie because he loved her,

and he effectively felt
responsible for killing her.

It was just
the world's greatest tragedy.

Reporter: A counterfeit bottle
of designer perfume

brought from Moscow,

the suspected weapon.

There was enough volume
of Novichok

in that tiny perfume tester
bottle to kill 10,000 people.

Which, to me, made it a weapon
of mass destruction.

I dunno about you,
but I tend to think of

intercontinental ballistic
missiles with nuclear warheads

as weapons of mass destruction.

Not a Nina Ricci
perfume tester bottle.

Journalist: Should the public
have been alerted sooner

to potential dangers?

Theresa May: What I felt
was a...

not just a profound sense
of sympathy

um, and concern
for her friends and family

and obviously for her partner,

(indistinct dialogue)

...but also immense anger at
the Russian agents who did this

and a steely determination
that we were going to get them.

And I've got a prime minister,
a national security advisor,

a cabinet secretary
and an entire cabinet going,

"We need to say something."

So, the press conference
was called

largely to say we've done
everything we possibly can do.

Both suspects are approximately
40 years old.

They are both Russian nationals,

and they were travelling
on Russian passports.

(tense music)

It is likely that they were
travelling under aliases,

and these are not
their real names.

Reporter: Police have
determined that the pair left

soon after the attack

and that neither of them
were known

to British intelligence
authorities.

Christo: So here we're looking
at this press release,

which showed clearly nobody knew
the real names

behind these fake identities.

We see it as a puzzle,

and we have to start
with the data we have.

Two faces, two fake names,
a rough age.

So that's a puzzle we have to
fit all of these few clues

into a world of what, 200
million people living in Russia.

And then suddenly,
Putin comes into the whole story

and makes a statement.

(speaking in Russian)

Christo: And he goes and says,

"I think these are very
law-abiding, good citizens."

"There's nothing criminal about
them,

but let them speak
about themselves,

let them come forward."

(speaking in Russian)

(mysterious music)

So we stop in our tracks
and say,

"Well, this is becoming
bigger than we thought."

"Why don't we just wait and see
what gets published?"

And the next day, Russia Today
airs the famous interview

with the two of them.

(speaking in Russian)

Christo: The whole world
was waiting to see

what the hell this could be.

They must have
a really strong case.

Well, it's still as cringeworthy
as anything I've seen.

I've never seen anything
more cringy.

Christo: You just have to
look at the

ridiculousness around their face

to know that that is just a lie.

(mysterious music)

Christo: And so we started
trying to contact

former military officers
from Russia,

asking a simple question.

If these are people
in their early 40s,

and they are professional
military spies,

where would they have studied
their trade craft, their skills?

And we received two answers
from two different people

that converged
on the same thing.

There were only two elite
schools that was mentioned

as a sort of breeding ground
for spies.

One of them was the Far Eastern
military institute.

Why don't you look there?

So we started digging into it.

And then the evidence came
in the form of a Facebook page

of a former graduate,

and he's literally photographing
everything as he walks around.

And then he goes to something

that is called
the Wall of Honour.

And there in the blurriness,

we saw a silhouette of somebody
with a Hero of Russia award,

who looks so much
like one of our spies.

But then we zoomed in,
we enhanced the photo,

and there was no doubt
that this is our guy.

But the name under the photo
was Anatoliy Chepiga.

This meant that Boshirov
was in fact Anatoliy Chepiga.

We had a moment of jubilation,
but where's the other one?

We had some minor clues of who
this might be,

but ultimately, we came across a
leaked car registration database

and that showed that
the guy we knew,

Chepiga, had actually sold a car

to somebody called
Alexander Mishkin.

And they were registered
to the same address

at a dormitory in Moscow

belonging to Russian
military intelligence.

So we thought maybe this Mishkin
guy,

the guy with the car,
is the one we're looking for.

But we needed to be really sure.

Then we had discovered
that he grew up

and was born in
this tiny village called Loyga.

And we sent somebody to Loyga.

Surely we can find somebody
who can point him out to us

and recognise him on a photo.

It was a match, 100%.

Petrov was Alexander Mishkin.

But the biggest takeaway of that
visit to Loyga was that,

like Chepiga,

Mishkin also had received
the medal of Hero of Russia.

The thing is that award
is only bestowed

by the President of Russia.

(dramatic Russian folk music)

That meant that both
Mishkin and Chepiga

has shaken hands with Putin.

There was no way Putin would not
have known who they are.

(line ringing)

I remember I got a call from
a journalist to say,

"You've been asking for
the evidence, here it is."

(suspenseful music)

So now we know exactly
who's done this.

There's no doubt that something
like this would have had to have

been sanctioned
by Putin himself.

Morning.

There is overwhelming evidence

that the Novichok
was brought to Salisbury

by Russian GRU officers.

I am sure that in conducting
this attack on Sergei Skripal,

they must have been acting on
instructions

received from their superiors.

And I've concluded

that the operation
to assassinate Sergei Skripal

must have been authorised
at the highest level.

Indeed, by President Putin.

Now our allies could be
100% sure that it was Russia,

that they'd done it
deliberately.

The 8,362nd meeting
of the Security Council

is called to order.

Thank you, Mr President.

The United Kingdom has presented
detailed evidence

clearly laid out in charges
of attempted murder

and the use and possession
of a chemical weapon

against two agents
of the Russian state.

And we will continue to take
the necessary steps

to ensure
our collective security.

I said to President Trump
and to other world leaders,

if we let them do this
without a reaction,

then they will think they are
able to do it elsewhere.

Reporter: 16 EU member states

have announced the expulsion
of Russian diplomats.

Outside the EU,
Ukraine expelled 13 diplomats.

But the biggest batch of
expulsions comes from the US,

where the White House announced

60 officials would have
to leave,

including a dozen
based at the UN.

And it was the biggest expulsion
of Russian intelligence officers

around the world
that had ever been seen.

Amber Rudd: Putin only
respects strength.

The only way to respond to him
is to stand up to him.

And we mustn't be frightened
of doing that.

And we must guard NATO's borders
literally with our lives.

Christo: The case
of the Skripal poisonings

never finished for me
and my colleagues.

It just became the beginning
of a whole new series

of investigations.

Anyway, so I'll show you some
specific data a bit later.

(tense music)

-Hey, man.
-How are you?

The last trip taken by him

travelling on military planes
undercover.

We continued tracking.

We found they're still
living in Russia

and they're still
very much active.

These are Mishkin's
two daughters.

This daughter was literally born
on the day they left Salisbury.

-No.
-Yes.

I know them better than anyone.

I certainly know their life
better than their wives do.

We have their medical records,

car insurance databases,

driver's licenses.

We even hacked traffic cameras.

And look at him,
he's got like a new fancy beard.

By tracking them,

we uncovered a whole new unit
run by these guys.

Nickname: Sabotage University.

Turns out they're training
the new generation

of freelance killers.

(police sirens)

People from the street with
no prior military background,

criminals from different
countries...

(shouting)

...being trained to conduct
acts of sabotage...

Stay still! Stay still!

...and assassinations.

The knowledge of what
they're doing today

allows us to predict
what might be happening next.

There's comes a point where you
have to tell the world

what you've found.

Christo, thanks for joining us.

Hi.

We'll be going live
in one minute.

Very good, thank you.

John: Everybody reads about
the plots that get through,

but no one reads about the plots
that are disrupted.

And there are thousands,
if not tens of thousands

of people now going about
their daily lives

who would have been killed
had it not been for the people

who have helped
Western intelligence agencies.

Okay, Christo, going live in 3,
2, and we're live.

Christo, thanks so much
for being with us.

These are new,
blood-curdling discoveries

that we find today about what
these teams are doing,

all the way from connected
crimes, as they call it,

like killing people,
targeting people,

to disruption,

to disinformation projects
around the world.

I guess what this also does is
as well reminds the public

that this is sort of
an ever-present danger.

-Totally agree.
-Okay.

All the best with your work,
Christo.

Thank you. Have a great
day. Thanks. Bye.

Good.

(sighs)

(pensive music)

Meg: What had happened here
was so surreal.

It took a while to sort of work
out, what does it mean to me?

It was like fiction,
but it was real.

Tragic.

It doesn't sound like
it's something that happens

in your town.

Emma: You do wonder what
happened to Sergei Skripal.

Is he still here?
Does he still come here?

(jaunty music)

I mean, I have friends
who claim to have seen him

at the cemetery,

where his wife is buried.

(wind whistling)

♪ I hear the thunder roar

(dramatic Russian folk music)