Russian intelligence created a false trail linking the double agent Sergei Skripal to the former MI6 officer behind the Trump dossier, before carrying out the Salisbury nerve agent attack, The Telegraph has been told.
Well-placed sources now believe that the plot to kill Col Skripal may have included a ‘black ops’ attempt to sow doubt on the veracity of the dossier that claims Donald Trump received Kremlin backing.
The year before the attempted assassination of Col Skripal, a mysterious post on LinkedIn suggested his MI6 handler, who is not being named, worked as a “senior analyst” at Orbis Business Intelligence, the firm founded by Christopher Steele, former head of MI6’s Russia desk.
Mr Steele’s dossier included the central claim that the Kremlin had been “cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years”. But a number of sources have told The Telegraph that the LinkedIn profile is false, and that Skripal’s MI6 handler never worked for Orbis.
It is now suspected that the LinkedIn profile was created by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence unit which tried to kill Col Skripal with novichok nerve agent.
One reason would be to connect MI6 to Skripal’s murder and at the same time flag the possibility that the British secret service was behind the Trump dossier.
A well-placed source said: “By creating this link, they are suggesting that MI6 are involved with the dossier or Skripal or both ... It is exactly the kind of operation the Russians would order to sow confusion.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ei-skripal-ex/
The Kremlin plugged the theory that MI6 carried out the Skripal hit - until the would-be assassins were identified as two known GRU agents. But why try to tie Steele into the story? Was there some reason for wanting to discredit the "salacious, unverified" dossier?
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