Intel gathering

MI6 spook who recruited Skripal in a Spanish strip club 'had close links to two other exiled Russians who died suspiciously after criticising Vladimir Putin'

The MI6 officer who recruited poisoned spy Sergei Skripal also had close links to two other exiled Russians who died suspiciously in Britain after criticising Vladimir Putin.

It was a senior figure in the Secret Intelligence Services, posing as a businessman, who convinced the Russian colonel to become a double agent and start selling military secrets to the UK.

Today, it can be revealed that the same MI6 handler was also involved in operations with Boris Berezovsky and Alexander Litvinenko. It will add weight to claims Skripal ended up on a Kremlin hitlist.

Former KGB officer Litvinenko was given political asylum in Britain after criticising Putin, but in 2006 he was murdered with radioactive poison in a London hotel in what police believe was an assassination carried out by the Russian state. His friend, the tycoon Berezovsky, survived two apparent attempts on his life before being found hanged at his Surrey mansion in 2013, with the coroner recording an open verdict.