Asked to respond to British media speculation that Russia had poisoned Skripal, Peskov said: "It didn't take them long." Russia's foreign spy service, known as the SVR, said it had no comment to make. One of the Russian spies exchanged for Skripal was Anna Chapman. He is thought to have done serious damage to Russian spy networks in Britain and Europe. The GRU spy service, created in 1918 under revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky, is controlled by the military general staff and reports directly to the president.

Source: CBC News March 06, 2018 13:43 UTC