Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday branded former double agent Sergei Skripal a "traitor" and a "scumbag", saying Moscow knew he had cooperated with foreign intelligence after his release in a spy swap.
But he again denied any Russian involvement in the poisoning of Skripal, who Britain says was attacked with a Soviet-designed nerve agent by members of Russia's military intelligence in March. "He is just a scumbag," a visibly angry Putin told an energy forum in Moscow.
"He is just a spy, a traitor to the homeland," Putin said in his toughest remarks about Skripal to date. "He was caught, he was punished, he spent five years in prison, we let him go, he left and continued cooperating with, providing consultations to (foreign) security services."
The former Russian military intelligence colonel was found guilty of passing state secrets to Britain and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006. He was pardoned by then-president Dmitry Medvedev and released as part of a spy swap with the West in 2010.
Putin's statement that Skripal consulted foreign intelligence goes against previous statements by his spokesman that the ex-spy is "of zero value or zero importance" to Moscow. It follows reports that Skripal in recent years helped expose several Russian agents in European countries.