Interesting if true.

This is something I raved quite a bit about since the moment I saw the news.

Who benefits?

Did Russia have a motive to poison Skripal and his daughter? Motives for a course of action are intrinsically linked to the result of the action. The obvious and predictable result of using a nerve agent that was originally developed in Russia in the 1970s to poison a former Russian spy living in the UK and working for British intelligence is that Russia would be blamed and universally condemned for it. So if Russia was motivated to further downgrade its reputation on the international stage, then sure, Russia had motivation to poison Skripal and his daughter.

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Some supposed facts:

Skripal lived in Salisbury, England, and had been working for MI5 for 8 years. It is reasonable to assume that he may, therefore, have had access to sensitive material, possibly useful to foreign governments, including Russia. As such, he may have posed an 'intelligence threat' if he returned to Russia.

According to a close friend, Skripal had recently decided that he wanted to go back to live in Russia and petitioned the Russian government to that end.

Not long thereafter, Skripal was poisoned with a substance that was in stock at a British Ministry of Defense facility, 8 miles from where he was living.

The British government blamed Russia for his poisoning. This accusation must be seen in the context of a years-long anglo-American black propaganda campaign designed to marginalize Russia and thereby limit its ability to effectively assert itself as a globally influential player.

So, who benefits?

This is pretty obvious.

One thing to add: The spy lived in England for 8 years. If Russia feared he would share something important they should have killed him 8 years ago.

Now? It doesn't make a lot of sense.

He had also petitioned to return so why not let him return and then kill him if you wanted revenge or feared him coming as a spy for the British.

On the other hand the British government seems to have had both the means (an outdated toxin anyone could make yet blame on Russia) and the motive (defame Russia and stop the spy leaving them).

All the russians needed to do was download their copies of hillary emails, put them in his possession, inform the clinton foundation and he would have been taken care of properly.