Sergei Skripal and his daughter were taken ill on Sunday after being exposed to a mystery substance.

In the year Skripal was granted asylum in Britain, Vladimir Putin issued a chilling threat to traitors.

The clip has resurfaced as investigators examine Skripal's collapse.



A chilling clip of Russian President Vladimir Putin threatening traitor spies has resurfaced from 2010, prompting speculation that the suspected poisoning of former double-spy Sergei Skripal was linked to the Kremlin.

Putin made the threat the year Skripal, who was jailed for passing Russian state secrets to British intelligence in exchange for $100,000 (£72,000), was granted asylum in Britain after a spy exchange between Russia and the US.

"Traitors will kick the bucket," Putin says in the video. "Trust me. These people betrayed their friends, their brothers in arms. Whateverthey got in exchange for it, those thirty pieces silver they were given, they will choke on them.”

BBC Newsnight resurfaced the clip on Tuesday night while reporting on the alleged poisoning of 66-year-old Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

Watch the footage below:

Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed on a bench at a south England shopping centre on Sunday after being exposed to a mystery substance.

The cause of the Skripals' illness remains unclear. The Sun reported that military scientists working on the case believe the father and daughter might have been poisoned with a "hybrid" kind of thallium, a hard-to-trace heavy metal.

Whitehall sources told The Times on Tuesday night that UK intelligence was treating the suspected poisoning as an assassination attempt linked to Russia.

Sergei Skripal at his trial in 2006.