Thank you SA. I think this one passed me by. There seems to be no doubt as to the cause of Glushkov’s murder. The only question seems to be who carried it out and why.
Quoting from the Guardian piece:
“In 1999, Glushkov was charged with money laundering and fraud. He spent five years in jail and was freed in 2004. Fearing further arrest, he fled to the UK and was granted political asylum.”
He is a very different sort of a character from Skripal who was a military man and double agent working for the British. And moreover, Skripal was exchanged in a “spy-swap”, which I am sure that the Russians would have wanted to ensure was honoured. If they murdered Skripal it would compromise the possibility of future exchanges of agents.
It is noteable that the Guardian piece on Glushkov is co-written by Luke Harding, who is a notorious Russophobe. He is most famous for writing a book called “Collusion” in which he claims that Moscow helped Trump get into the White House. He has also famously written the article about Paul Manafort visiting Julian Assange, which is widely believed to be at best a fabrication on his part. Harding is the worst sort of mainstream journalist IMO.
The Russian Embassy has this to say:
“Russia has repeatedly asked for, and been denied, access to join the British investigation into Nikolay Glushkov’s death.”