The head of MI6 said Russia broke one of the primary rules of espionage and won't be trusted again after it tried to assassinate a former Russian agent despite giving him away in a spy swap.
In the speech, Younger said the UK had partly trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin when Russia pardoned Skripal in 2010 in return for its own agents.
The UK accused Russia of being behind the attack on Skripal in March 2018, a charge the Kremlin denies.
Spy swaps are understandings between the West and Russia that date back to the of the Cold War.
The goal is typically to have them go smoothly so more spy swaps can be done in the future.
He said if Russia had really wanted to kill Skripal, the country could have executed him in prison.
So Russia would have needed to believe it had a good reason to attempt to assassinate Skripal on UK soil. »