Skripal in Prison — The First Book to Report the Truth

Editor’s note: John Helmer of Dances With the Bears is one of the two people who have done the most work on Her Majesty’s Skripal fiasco (the other being Rob Slane of The Blogmire). He’s the longest-serving foreign reporter in Russia (arrived to cover the Perestroika and simply never left) and with unnerving regularity manages to know more than you would think would be possible for one Australian in Moscow. Now he has a book out on the whole thing.


It is exactly two years since the case of two Russians, Sergei and Yulia Skripal, began with their collapse on a park bench in the middle of England on the afternoon of March 4, 2018.

On their anniversary it is necessary to tell this story. But it isn’t the story of what happened. This is because the only people who can tell that one, the Skripals, are locked away in isolation, guarded by determined men under secret government orders.

Instead, this is the story of what didn’t happen – provably didn’t happen because it was quite impossible circumstantially; and because the legal papers warranting that it did have not been signed by a judge, tested in a court of law, or released in public.

The facts which you have seen, heard or read about the incident of March 4, 2018, have been falsified. Everything that has flowed from them is false too. Understanding this is a start to the other story, and so something solid to work from – not missed until now; more like seen but disbelieved. As if the truth were fiction, and the fiction truth.

This is the story of how the largest and longest criminal investigation in modern British history ended in a prosecution without evidence of the crime, the weapon, the crime scene, and even of the crime victims. Allegations there are; evidence admissible in a British court of law there is not. That’s to say, a prosecution which will not be presented in court, before no judge and jury; with no witnesses on oath; and no verdict. That is no prosecution at all.

To say otherwise, as do the British Government, its allies abroad, and every one of its mass-circulation media without exception, is a lie. The victims, it turns out, are held in a British prison, at a secret location, incommunicado, without access to lawyers to defend them, without contact with their families, or the consular representatives of the state whose passports they hold. No court has judged them or sentenced them to this punishment.

The Prime Ministers, Theresa May & Boris Johnson, lied.

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MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, lied.

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The BBC lied.

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The coroner broke the law.

The police and prosecutors faked the evidence.

Russian intelligence agents tried to rescue Sergei Skripal but were foiled in the attempt. This is the story of what didn’t happen, and the truth of what did.

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING

  • “You’ve lost me John”  —  Mark Urban, BBC
  • “Other books will follow on the Skripals, but they will struggle to match the texture of Urban’s research, its knowledgeable hinterland” — The Times
  • “There are people out there who know exactly what happened and who are biding their time before revealing all. I am not such a person, nor would I want to be, but I believe that such people do exist” —  Rob Slane, The Blogmire
  • “One of the most experienced foreign journalists in Moscow, John Helmer has lived in Russia for the last 30 years and knows more about it than necessary” — Andrei Shitov, Chief Political Observer, Tass
  • “The book explains why the truth, though known, has not been told” — Katrina van den Heuvel, Editor, The Nation, New York.
  • “You are picking on a dead man who can’t answer for himself” – Joe Lauria, Editor, Consortium News
  • “[John Helmer is] a notorious conspiracy theorist” — Jeremy Kinsman, former Canadian ambassador to Russia, foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Skripal in Prison  — the Paperback

Skripal in Prison — the E-book

Source: Dances With Bears

27 Comments
  1. […] Read further at Anti-Empire […]

  2. Jorge Trevino says

    It was obvious since the “highly likely” statement in hour one. It was obvious they were kidnapped, and, from my perspective, I feel more probable the Skirpals were assassinated by the MI6 than lock them out for the rest of their lives.
    They would be extremely dangerous to keep them alive, they may put Theresa May and Boris Johnson behind bars.
    One way or the other the Skirpals are sucked* and won’t see the sun shine never again. For their own sake, I hope they are dead rather than being tortured and isolated for life within the MI6 SIS catacombs.
    Their death sentence was when the daughter said on a 3 minutes telephone interview “they” wanted to be back to Russia when all that came to an end.

  3. Jasonovich says

    habeas corpus was the pinnacle that defined English Law, the Law of Equity, Jurisprudence, equality before the law but it seems the basic rights under our laws do not apply to the Skripals. It would not surprise me that they haven’t already been packaged into cans of dog food. Hope Fido doesn’t get the shits.

  4. Robert Mcconnell says

    New Zealand has a woman PM who is very popular for her PC and liberal views. She’s doing OK domestically but I went off her over this bullshit skripal affair when I saw her singing from the same song sheet as every other western polly, the song sheet as handed out by the British foreign service. She sat in front of cameras with the minister for foreign affairs who is old enough to know better, and lied. She lied to the NZ public by passing on a lie, the lie of “highly likely” pointing the finger of accusation without a shred of evidence. They are all despicable, these useless politicians, the command no respect whatsoever.
    I spit in their faces including that of Jacinda Adern.

    1. itchyvet says

      Every New Zealander wishes they were British, and would suck up to the Brits in the hope some British vapor would rub off on them. You can count on them, supporting anything the Brits will ever do. Illegal or not.

  5. Bob avlon says

    Was said he is in a prison if you look at earlier comments. British could fool some 20% of people only. All the anti Russian mob loved it. Like to know where the idea originated because it smells of US CIA stuff. Now there is another bio weapon running several have said goes back to them. Statue of Liberty to be taken down.

  6. cechas vodobenikov says

    this has long been obvious—the brits now demonstrate that they r as incompetent as their American cousins

    1. itchyvet says

      The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

  7. CHUCKMAN says

    If someone has read the book, could you please offer bullet points of the author’s thesis?

  8. Pablo Rivera says

    Hmmm, a third tier “spy” released from the “affected” country, suddenly turned into an objective, and in the middle of “chemical attacks” on a proxy war, instead of just being shot, he gets poisoned? Risking killing random people in the process? I can imagine the poor bastard today: hey! This is not what we’d agreed on!! I just want to get a bloody pint on the pub! – no way Jose, after 3 beers you will sing like McCain

  9. Mary E says

    What a travesty! The Skripals are now in the same situation as Julian Assange—
    The Truthtellers are imprisoned and shut up, never to tell the real story of what happened. Shocking…how many of us knew?
    I honestly thought that they were part of a plot to besmirch Putin! England certainly does not belong in the EU (Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish!)…it belongs in the US with all the other villains of the West.

    1. bob says

      Truthtellers!!!!!

      Are you having a laugh?

      Assange is a dumb idiot who played a stupid game and lost

      The Russian bloke is a TRAITOR, according to Putin, so he was liquidated, or thats what Putin tryed to do

      Putin is a criminal ,allegedly its claimed he had some sort of knowledge about about the Moscow bombings in the nineties!

      He basically engineered a coup, plot to get himself and his criminal oligarchy into power

      And since its apparent he has a taste for keeping other low grade scum in power also, such as Assad and those idiots in Venezuela

      1. itchyvet says

        Well I guess with that one post, we all know the sort of person you are and your mindset. Rest assured, we will diligently ignore any further of your posts.

        1. bob says

          he is a traitor,works for our enemies, why should i care about him? he didnt tell us anything we didnt really know or susspect of our government

  10. Margaret Swift says

    I did read that Skripal came out of retirement to work for the British government re the Russians oligarchs going into Britain at that time

  11. Kevin Rangi says

    Helmer was born in Australia, where does the Canadian connection come into it?

    1. Marko Marjanović says

      I thought Canada. Perhaps I was wrong, I’ll check.

    2. Frances says

      Here is a quote from end of above article, Canadian, eh. “[John Helmer is] a notorious conspiracy theorist” — Jeremy
      Kinsman, former Canadian ambassador to Russia, foreign policy advisor to
      Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

  12. Garry Compton says

    Possibly, this book could force the issue { a little bit }, concerning the true whereabouts of the Skripals. The western NWO laws , seem to have gone back to the Medieval times, which means – no Laws. Skripals’ need a Brexit , too.

  13. thomas malthaus says

    Death, taxes, and the certainty of the next day’s sunrise. Everything else is up for grabs.

  14. David Chu says

    It seems that George Orwell’s England did finally turn into 1984!

    Congratulations . . .

    1. bob says

      Not before it had been proof tested in Soviet Russia

      Although Putin does a good line in fake news and BS

    2. Carl Harris says

      It already was. 1984 wasn’t a warning, it was a description.

  15. CHUCKMAN says

    Wow, what a story.

    I’ve taken an interest in the Skripal case from the beginning, never for a moment accepting Theresa May’s feeble tale and unsupported public accusations against a major leader.

    Many ideas swirl around those events, including Skripal conducting various dirty dealings with other intelligence services. Also with being a contributor to Steele’s “dossier.”

    Is it possible Jon Helmer, long-term resident in Russia, has received this information from Russian security services, who likely do know something of what actually happened?

    A comment on the citations from critics:

    Very disappointed to see the negative tone of what Joe Lauria of Consortium News said, “You are picking on a dead man who can’t answer for himself” Of course, not having seen the book, I don’t know just what Lauria is talking about, but it is a highly negative comment clearly intended to shut down discussion.

    As for Jeremy Kinsman, former policy advisor to the most incompetent PM we have in the Western World, Justin Trudeau, who helped destroy Canada’s relationship with China, calling the author “a notorious conspiracy theorist,” all I can do is laugh.

    Anyone who uses that threadbare term about anything marks himself out as making a propaganda point. The term was actually manufactured by CIA disinformation folks back in the 1960s as a put-down of all the researchers looking into the Kennedy assassination. And in the end, of course it was the Warren Report itself that was the genuine “conspiracy theory.”

    https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2020/01/20/john-chuckman-comment-boris-johnson-throws-away-a-chance-to-improve-relations-with-russia-bringing-back-theresa-mays-fetidly-imagined-salisbury-attack-or-skripal-affair-and-demonstrating/

    1. itchyvet says

      It would seem Joe Lauria of Consortium News, allegedly KNOWS the Russian DIED. IF that is the case, when and where was he buried ?? Why were his remains not returned to his relatives in Russia, as is the norm ??
      The reference to Canada had me laughing, they are biggest butt kissers around, and have had it in for all things Russia for many years now.

    2. Wulver says

      It’s interesting how little we have on Kinsman’s background as well. No mention of family, mother or father, religion, etc. It’s as if that information is being intentionally withheld. That is strange given his obvious gravity in political circles.

  16. bob says

    I think the Canadian former ambassador is bang on the money

    He’s like Walter mitty

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