Everything You Need To Know About WTF Is Going On Between Russia And Britain Right Now

It might seem like the stuff of fiction. No, scratch that, of a barely believable James Bond film but the stand-off between Great Britain and Russia is very real and, you might argue, was a long time coming.

There's a lot to keep track of but don't worry, we're here to…well..Debrief it for you.

What Happened?

Tensions rose to their current level following the attempted murder of former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, in Salisbury on March 11th. Both were found slumped on a bench near The Maltings shopping centre in the Wiltshire town and taken to hospital where they remain in a critical condition by a police officer. That officer, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, was also taken to hospital after an encounter with the Skripals.

Why Were Sergei Skripal And His Daughter Slumped On A Bench In The First Place?

They were sick because they had been attacked with what has not been identified by experts at the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down as a nerve agent known as 'Novichoks'.

What Exactly Is A Nerve Agent?

Nerve agents are a class of chemicalswhich disrupt the mechanisms by which nerves send messages to the body's organs. They do this 'by the blocking of acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that catalyses the breakdown of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter'.

Encountering a nerve agentcan have very serious if not fatal effects. A person who has been poisoned by a nerve agent may show the following symptoms: contracted pupils, extreme salivation, convulsions and involuntary urination and/or defecation. Following that, death by asphyxiation or cardiac arrest is likely.

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In a nutshell, nerve agentsattack a person's entire nervous system and are designed to be deadly.

Novichok is a particular group of nerve agents which was developed in secret by the Soviet Union. It is only known about because Russian defectors like a chemical weapons developer by the name of Vil Mirzayanov who fled to the United States (US) and revealed information about the country's chemical weapons programme.

Mirazayanov wrote a bookexposing everything he knew about Russia's secret Cold War chemical weapons programme once he was settled in the US. He told Reuters that it 'involved as many as 30,000 or 40,000 people, he said, including perhaps 1,000 who worked on Novichok specifically, though many were not aware of the program's true nature'. He has said that Novichock is 'absolutely incurable' and 'torture' for anyone subjected to it.

Now 83, Mirazayanov said in his interview with Reuters that he had no doubt that Russia was behind the attack on Skripal and carried it out in an attempt to silence other Russian defectors so that they would not speak out against the country.

The use of a nerve agent fits a pattern established by the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London with polonium in 2006.

OK, So Why Would Russia Want To Poison Sergei Skripal?

Colonel Skripal is a former military intelligence officer. In 2006 he was found guilty of 'high treason in the form of espionage' by Moscow's military court. He stood trial after being accused of spying for the United Kingdom. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison. It was alleged that he had given MI6 information about Russian secret service agents across Europe.

However, according to the BBChe was one of four prisoners swapped for spies in the United States in 2010. It was after this that he settled in the UK.

Did Russia Do It?

On Wednesday this week, Theresa May told British MPs in Parliament that there was 'no alternative conclusion other than the Russian state was responsible for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter'.

Russia continues to deny any responsibility or involvement in the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter.

Isn't The Cold War Over?

Well, yes . It officially ended in 1991. However, many people regard Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, as a dictator. He's got a very shoddy record on human rights and is accused of rigging elections in his own country (as well as further afield - let's not forget that it is now confirmed that Russia interfered with the US election that saw Donald Trump elected). His presidency is regarded by both Russians and international experts as 'authoritarian'.

Broadly, Putin controls Russian media. When he became President, he took over the country's TV broadcast services. Because of this, he is able to keep a tight grip on the information disseminated throughout Russia - whether that is through the state-owned Russia Today or via censorship of other media outlets.

In 2012, Putin passed a bill which increased the penalty and punishment that would be metered out to Russian citizens who decided to participate in protests. Indeed, The Debrief interviewed Pussy Riot's Mariya Alyokhina who was sent to penal colony in Siberia after protesting against him. She told The Debrief that the world needs to be aware of just how corrupt Russia is.

So, What Does This All Mean?

[John Lough and James Sherr of Chatham House, an International Affairs think tank, have said ](https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/skripal-attack-test-uk-test-uk )that the poisoning of Sergei Skripal is 'a test for the UK'. They write that Russia's political and military leadership 'believes it is at war with the West'. This, they say, is 'not a war dominated by artillery and tanks, but by finance and social media, with huge opportunities for covert action from disinformation to assassination'.

The end goal for Russia in executing such an attack, Lough and Sherr say, would have been to send a message to any Russians living in the UK or any thinking of leaving. That message, they write is 'disloyalty is always punishable, you will never be free of us and you will never be safe, wherever you live. Singling out the reclusive 66-year old Skripal, eight years after he came to the UK and had run out of secrets to tell, simply underlines the point: you do not have to be an arch enemy of the Putin system to be in potential danger, and your family may also be a target'.

This whole incident is also intended to give the British government a message, the Chatham House experts say: 'What it says to the British government is: we believe you are weak, and we have no respect for you'.

Indeed, trouble was brewing before the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal. Only in January this year did General Sir Nick Carter give a speech in which he warned that Russia was 'the biggest state-based threat to the UK since the cold war'.

Wait, But Isn't Jeremy Corbyn Telling Everyone To Chill Out A Bit About This?

Theresa May has responded to the poisoning by expelling 23 Russian diplomats from this country. However, Corbyn has spoken out and called for 'calm'. In doing so, he has reportedly caused a rift in his own party.

Corbyn has warned the Prime Minister against 'rushing way ahead of the evidence' about the poisoning. He has also written an article for The Guardianin which he implores the Government to take a 'calm, measure' approach and says that if we act impulsively we risk 'drifting towards' a 'new cold war' with Russia. Corbyn is urging diplomacy over retaliatory action against Russia.

This is hardly a surprise, Corbyn is on the record as being unequivocally against any interventionist foreign policy - from Iraq to Libya.

So, What Does It All Mean?

That remains to be seen. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union which followed the Cold War a low-level fear and suspicion of Russia has remained in the West. After all, everyone needs something to be worried about. Whatever the truth about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, the interest in a real-life spy drama on British soil seems unlikely to subside. That said, we are seeing nothing like the sort of hysteria that follows large scale terror attacks like London Bridge or Manchester which suggests that people could be less worried about the rift between Theresa May and Vladimir Putin because, simply, the majority of people aren't former spies who have defected and sold state secrets so the threat probably doesn't feel as immediate or relatable.

**Follow Vicky on Twitter **@Victoria_Spratt

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.