Russian spy Sergei Skripal was MI6 double agent codenamed ‘Forthwith’ who sold Moscow’s secrets for years

POISONED Russian spy Sergei Skripal was a highly valued MI6 spook codenamed ‘Forthwith’ who sold Moscow’s secrets for years.

Skripal’s primary mission was to syphon secrets to British intelligence – including an entire telephone directory of Russian spies, The Times claims.

Skripal shared information with with MI5 and other allies including the CIA, which undermined a key sector of Russian intelligence as Putin was on the rise.

He did not expose large numbers of “illegals”, Russian spies working undercover in the West, but did go as far as exposing the identities of hundreds of Russian intelligence officers.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on Sunday.

Police say they were deliberately targeted with a rare nerve agent and fear others may have come in contact with the substance.

What we know so far:

• Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on Sunday
• Police say they were deliberately targeted with a rare nerve agent
• Cops cordoned off his house and the grave of his wife and son fearing others could be exposed to the poison
• A number of floral tributes have been removed from the graves and taken for testing
• Around 180 military personnel – including chemical weapons experts – have been deployed to Salisbury to help police in their investigations
• Cops say the poison may have been slipped into a gift Yulia brought from Moscow
• The first Wiltshire cop on the scene is also ill in hospital – but hopes were raised for his recovery now he is awake and talking 
• Theresa May has vowed revenge on Putin over the ‘hit’
• Home Secretary Amber Rudd is currently chairing a meeting of the Government’s Cobra committee
• Russian state TV warned ‘traitor’ double-agents they are not safe in the UK
• It was revealed Sergei’s MI6 contact had links to poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko

Today, armed forces personnel will return to Salisbury to assist police as the investigation and clean-up operation around the suspected nerve agent attack continues.

While stationed in Spain as an employee of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence, Skripal was considered a potential recruit by Spanish intelligence.

In 1995, when he was 44-years-old, an MI6 agent is said to have approached him, posing as a businessman.

Skripal retired from the GRU in 2000 and got a new job in the Moscow provincial government and continued to provide useful information, it is claimed.

Skripal was paid $5,000 – $6,000 for meeting MI6 officers at his paid-for timeshare holiday home.

On one occasion, it is claimed Skripal called an emergency meeting in Spain and demanded $10,000 in cash.

He was finally exposed as a double agent after an officer in the Spanish security service busted his activities and shopped him to Moscow.

He was arrested in 2004, and ‘Forthwith’ failed to make a planned meeting with MI6 agents.

Its is also claimed his wife, Liudmila, would travel to Spain to collect his payments when he was ill with diabetes.

Yesterday, hazmat cops were searching the cemetery where Russian double agent’s wife and son are buried have removed floral tributes from their graves for testing.

The fast-moving probe widened to the graveyard as officers tried to pinpoint where the MI6 informer was attacked with deadly nerve agent – which experts warn may be a never-seen-before substance.

Focus shifted to his family’s graves after it emerged both his ex-wife and son had died in mysterious circumstances.

Skripal and Yulia remain critically ill in hospital, with counter-terror officers having taken charge of the inquiry, as theories emerge that a Kremlin assassin may have been responsible.

Sources also believe that the father and daughter may have been poisoned in their own home with a “Trojan Horse” package unwitting brought into the UK from Moscow by Yulia.

Yulia’s childhood friend, Irina Petrova, told the that the Skripals were the “perfect family” and Yulia had not “done anything to deserve” being targeted.

Military members were seen covering a police car that has been stationed at Salisbury Hospital since Sunday, amid contamination fears.

A tarpaulin-covered car, believed to have been used by Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, was later towed away by an Army truck.

He remains in hospital after being exposed to the nerve agent.

A Met spokesman said: “The public should not be alarmed and the public health advice remains the same.

“Military assistance will continue as necessary during this investigation.”

Before falling ill on Sunday, Skripal and Yuli had gone into The Mill pub following a meal in a Zizzi restaurant.

Chemical teams in hazardous materials suits were ­dispatched to an ambulance station in Amesbury, Wilts, believed to be connected to the poisoning.

He was freed in 2010 as part of a swap for captured Russian spies and came to the UK, settling in Salisbury.

But he is said to have feared that henchmen of Russia’s President Putin were still determined to exact revenge.

A witness said he saw them slumped on the bench.

He added: “There was a man on the bench with his head between his legs being sick.

“I couldn’t see the woman ­properly, she was on the floor at the other person’s feet.”

Professor Alastair Hay, an expert on chemical weapons, said Skripal and Yulia’s blood, saliva and urine will be tested for traces of toxins.

But he said if the cause was “more unusual” results might not be expected for several days.

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