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Embassy: Russian journalists in UK receive threats as police probe ex-spy's poisoning

Former Russian military intelligence Colonel Sergey Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Julia on March 4 suffered from the effects of an unidentified nerve agent

LONDON, March 12./TASS/. The Russian Embassy in London says Russian journalists in the UK are receiving threats in the wake of an "anti-Russian campaign" in the UK media launched against the background of a probe into the poisoning of former Russian intelligence Colonel Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia, the Embassy said in a report circulated on Monday.

"We are outraged by the anti-Russian media campaign, which is exerting pressure on the investigation and psychological influence on the UK residents with the connivance of the authorities," it said. "Our nationals and Russian-born Britons feel anxiety as to their future in the country. Unfortunately, threats have started coming to Russian journalists working here," the embassy went on.

TASS has failed to get an immediate commentary from the embassy as to journalists from which exactly Russian media outlets are getting threats.

Former GRU Colonel Sergey Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Julia on March 4 suffered from the effects of an unidentified nerve agent. They were found slumped on a bench near The Maltings shopping center in Salisbury. Both are now in hospital in critical condition.

In 2004, Skripal was arrested by the federal security service FSB, charged, tried and convicted of high treason and stripped of all ranks and awards. In 2010 he was handed over to the United States under an arrangement to exchange persons arrested on spying charges. Later in the same year Skripal settled in Britain.