THE HINDU, 14th MARCH, 2018- While the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury on March 4 may appear to have similarities to the circumstances around the death of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London 2006, the government’s rhetoric has been strikingly tougher and more definitive this time.

On Monday night, just over a week after Mr. Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a shopping mall bench, British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons that it was “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for poisoning from a “military grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia” under its Novichok nerve gas programme.