Inspired by a real case

The poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal with Novichok

Salisbury, England, 2018

This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.

Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence (GRU), had passed secrets to the British secret service, was convicted in Russia in 2006 and left prison in a spy swap in 2010. He had lived in Salisbury, in southern England, ever since. On the afternoon of Sunday, March 4, 2018, he and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting, were found unconscious on a bench in the town center at 4:15 pm, after stopping at a pub and having lunch at an Italian restaurant. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey of Wiltshire Police, who went to Skripal's house, also fell seriously ill.

Forensic work identified Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent, applied to the front door handle of the house. Police reconstructed from camera footage the movements of two men with Russian passports in the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov: they arrived in London on March 2, went to Salisbury on the 3rd on a trip police called reconnaissance and returned on the 4th, filmed at 11:58 am near the house. That night they flew to Moscow. In an interview with the state broadcaster RT in September, they said they were tourists who had gone to see the cathedral. Journalistic investigations found that the names were false and that the two were GRU officers.

Sources

In the game

Sunday Perfume

Salisbury, a Sunday in March, 6 pm. At 4:15 pm, a 66-year-old man and his 33-year-old daughter were found unconscious on a bench in the town square, eyes open, unresponsive. They are in a coma.

Father and daughter survived after weeks in hospital, and Bailey recovered too. The poison had been carried in a fake perfume bottle, which was left behind: on June 30, Charlie Rowley found it in a trash bin and gave it to his partner, Dawn Sturgess, who sprayed the liquid on her wrists and died on July 8, 2018. The United Kingdom charged three Russian officers in absentia and expelled diplomats. In December 2025, the public inquiry into Dawn Sturgess's death concluded that the operation was authorized at the highest level of the Russian state, which has always denied involvement.

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