In particular Mr Glushkov former senior official at Areoflot died at his New Malden home on 12 March. A post-mortem examination has found he died from "compression to the neck".
The UK granted Mr Glushkov political asylum in 2010 after he fled Moscow.
Following the UK government's decision to expel 23 Russian embassy officials, the Russians have retaliated in kind with 23 expulsions from the UK embassy in Moscow together with the closure of the British Council and a consulate in St Petersburg.
The call by UK Labour Party's leader Jeremy Corbyn, for proof of murder, seems to me to be absurd:
Firstly; given the likelihood that the nerve agent was placed in Miss Skripal's suitcase before she travelled to the UK to see her father, how would the UK have any possibility of proving the identity of the criminal or who gave him instructions ?
Secondly; who else would seek to murder them both?
Thirdly, Jeremy Corbyn nonetheless approved the expulsion of the 23 Russian diplomats from London, which approval hardly seems compatible with the innocent until proven guilty approach that the Labour Leader suggests should apply to the Russian state's government.
Innocent until proven guilty, is a commendable part of the Common Law but can rarely apply to actions taken by foreign states, simply because a foreign states can prevent the normal collection and evaluation of evidence of its crimes.
Now that the Russian Government has retaliated and more what I wonder will be the next step? From the England perspective my own view is that our football team should be asked not to play in the football World Cup this summer. The Russian state has spent a fortune on preparing to host the World Cup and this would be a strong but temporary way of demonstrating that that breaking what should be an important part of international as well as domestic law, does not go unpunished.
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