The former commander of UK and NATO CBRN Forces, Col Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, has said the accusation that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok ‘would make a lot of sense.’
Col de Bretton-Gordon also warned that appeasing Putin in Ukraine could see the UK ‘having to fight the Russians on European soil in the next couple of years.’
Speaking on GB News, Col Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said:
“The murder, as I think it probably is, of Navalny, has all the hallmarks of the Russian Secret Service which of course is synonymous with Putin anyway.
“And the use of toxic chemicals to do that is a particular desire of the Russians.
“Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok in August 2020 in Russia, and he somehow survived. So the fact that he looked pretty well on Thursday evening when he was last seen on TV, and then died on Friday, the Russians said it was Sudden Cardiac Death Syndrome.
“I know a lot about it and certainly Navalny didn't look like somebody who had that particular syndrome.
“So the accusation that it is Novichok would make a lot of sense because we know the Russians designed this deadly nerve agent to be undetectable. The body is probably not going to be released for 14 days so the chances of a rudimentary post mortem in Russia actually finding it a pretty unlikely.
“We’ll probably never know how he died but I think it's clear to most people that he was killed to get them out of the way probably due to Putin’s alleged sham election on the 12th of March.
“I think David Cameron is doing a good job getting around the place, getting to the Falklands today. And one of the reasons I think Putin has been on the loose as it were, is because he didn't think the West would do anything about it, and which is why he invaded Ukraine two years ago.
“Everybody remembers the Obama red line on chemical weapon use, which again, the West sort of ignored and somebody like Putin only responds to strength.
“But, particularly in the US, there is wavering about supporting Ukraine. I hope people in this country and around Europe and the States realise that Putin has no limits.
“If he's quite happy to murder one of his own countrymen like Navalny then he's probably prepared to do anything.
“I think what everybody needs to understand if Putin prevails in Ukraine, he's not going to stop there. He's going to keep going West.
“It's up to all of us to redouble our efforts to support Ukraine and the US is key to this and whether the $60 billion package is signed off or not.
“Quite frankly, if we don't support Ukraine, we might well find ourselves with our own beleaguered military having to fight the Russians on European soil in the next couple of years.”
WATCH THE ABOVE CLIP FOR MORE
