LONDON: Russian President Vladimir Putin wished “good health” to former agent Sergei Skripal as he was released from a British hospital on Friday, after recovering from a nerve agent poisoning alleged to have been orchestrated by the Kremlin.

“God grant him good health,” Putin said in a Sochi press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“If a military-grade poison had been used, the man would have died on the spot. Thank God he recovered and that he left (hospital).” Russia has rejected British accusations of involvement in the poisoning, which spar­ked a diplomatic crisis that saw Russia and the West expelling dozens of diplomats in tit-for-tat moves.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting from Moscow, collapsed on March 4 on a bench in Salisbury, the city in southwestern England where the former double agent lives.

Police officer Nick Bailey who came to help was also taken to hospital. He was discharged several weeks after the attack, while Yulia Skripal was treated in hospital for just over a month.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2018