Former Russian Double Agent Was Warned About Kremlin Hit List Before Nerve Attack

A former Russian double agent living in the United Kingdom said he was warned in February that he and several other British citizens — including another spy who was nearly killed in a nerve agent attack earlier this month and well-known spy Christopher Steele — were on a Kremlin hit list.

Boris Karpichkov told NBC News he received a phone call from a friend less than two months ago, saying his life was in danger. Also on that FSB hit list — the FSB is the current form of the KGB — were Sergei Skripal, who was nearly killed with a Russian-made nerve agent, Steele, who wrote the infamous Donald Trump dossier, Bill Browder, who played a key role in the United States' decision to sanction Russians via the Magnitsky Act, and former KGB agents.

Karpichkov said his friend told him, "Be careful, look around, something is probably going to happen. It's very serious, and you are not alone."

Karpichkov would not say where in the United Kingdom he lives.

Victor Makarov, another former KGB agent living in England, told NBC he lives in northern England and is constantly aware of his surroundings and who is near his home.

"If any stranger appears, he will be immediately seen, believe me," Makarov said. "I have two people on my side: God and the local community."

Skripal and his daughter remain hospitalized nearly a month after they were discovered slumped over on a Salisbury, England park bench. It was later concluded that they had ingested Novichok, a nerve agent developed by Russia during the Cold War.

England and several of its Western allies, including the United States, responded by expelling Russian diplomats from their borders. Russia then did the same this week.

• Russia: US Tried to Recruit Expelled Diplomats
• State Dept: US 'Reserves Right to Respond' to Russian Expulsions