WHEN Sergei Skripal left Russia in 2010, his fate seemed to have taken a bright turn. As part of a prisoner exchange with Britain and America, the mi6 double agent swapped a Russian jail cell for suburban life in Wiltshire. Having been pardoned in Moscow and debriefed in London, he appeared destined for a quiet retirement. But on March 5th he and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a parkbench in Salisbury. As we went to press they lay in a critical condition, the victims of what police identified as a nerve agent. A police officer among the first to attend the scene was also hospitalised.
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