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A Russian spy who defected to Britain today reveals he was also poisoned – and claims he is on a hit-list of EIGHT targets he says Vladimir Putin wants dead.

Boris Karpichkov says he survived an assassination attempt – but lost nearly five stone and all of his body hair.

The ex-KGB major has since learned of seven others – including double agent Sergei Skripal – he believes the Russian President wants to execute.

In a terrifying development, Karpich­kov says he has been warned to watch for weapons disguised as e-cigarettes but which conceal deadly nerve gas.

He tells the Sunday People bluntly: “I’m 59. But I’m not ­optimistic about seeing 60.”

(Image: REUTERS)

We can reveal the others on the hit-list given to Karpichkov are:

OLEG GORDIEVSKY, 79 . MI6 spirited Britain’s top Cold War double agent out of Russia in 1985 in the boot of a Ford saloon. He has provided British Intelligence with information ever since.

. MI6 spirited Britain’s top Cold War double agent out of Russia in 1985 in the boot of a Ford saloon. He has provided British Intelligence with information ever since. BILL BROWDER, 53 . A US-born British financier banned from Russia in 2005. Interpol rejected Russian extradition requests after Browder was sentenced in his absence to nine years for tax fraud.

. A US-born British financier banned from Russia in 2005. Interpol rejected Russian extradition requests after Browder was sentenced in his absence to nine years for tax fraud. CHRISTOPHER STEELE, 53 . Former MI6 officer running private intelligence firm. Made ­unsubstantiated claims of Russian spies holding compromising video of US President Donald Trump cavorting with prostitutes.

. Former MI6 officer running private intelligence firm. Made ­unsubstantiated claims of Russian spies holding compromising video of US President Donald Trump cavorting with prostitutes. IGOR SUTYAGIN, 53 . Russian nuclear weapons specialist accused of spying for Britain, for which he served 11 years for treason. Swapped in 2010 along with Skirpal for Russian sleeper agents in a US spy network including femme fatale Anna Chapman.

. Russian nuclear weapons specialist accused of spying for Britain, for which he served 11 years for treason. Swapped in 2010 along with Skirpal for Russian sleeper agents in a US spy network including femme fatale Anna Chapman. YURI SHVETS, 65 . Former KGB major who defected to America in 1994. A key witness in the police investigation into the 2006 poisoning of former spy Alexander Litvinenko.

. Former KGB major who defected to America in 1994. A key witness in the police investigation into the 2006 poisoning of former spy Alexander Litvinenko. VLADIMIR REZUN (alias VIKTOR SUVOROV), 70 Captain in GRU Soviet military intelligence until his defection to Britain in 1978. Now writes controversial books on Soviet military history.

Today police were continuing to investigate the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, after both were found unconscious in Salisbury, Wilts, on Sunday.

Yulia’s childhood friend, Irina Petrova, told the BBC she recalled the Skripals as the “perfect family”. Yulia and her father are being treated in ­hospital.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd chaired a meeting of the government’s emergency committee, Cobra, to discuss the attempted murder.

Karpichkov says he learned of his death ­sentence on his birthday, February 12, in a chilling warning from an ex-colleague.

(Image: YouTube) (Image: AFP)

It is the third time he has been a target since he defected 20 years ago. In 2006 he was warned by MI5 to skip the ­country because his life was in danger.

He fled to New Zealand, where the first of two chemical attacks took place that November – the week Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned.

He told how a “beggar” tried to grab his laptop bag, and in the same moment he felt a “gust” on his face.

The spy recalls: “He’d sprayed some sort of powder on me. I walked 50 to 100 metres, then felt like the earth was spinning. I was light-headed, dizzy, felt sweaty and like I was about to black out.”

(Image: Matt Sprake Photography)

The “beggar” let go of the bag and walked off. Karpichkov adds: “My nose and eyes started running and I began developing flu-like symptoms.

“A rash appeared on my chest. Within a couple of months I’d lost 66lb, I was a walking corpse. I was sure I would die.”

Medical records seen by the Sunday People show poisoning was suspected, though never proved. He fell ill again four months later, still in New Zealand.

(Image: Nicholas Bowman/Sunday Mirror)

He arrived home to a strong chemical smell – and mysterious crystals on the carpet which melted away. He says: “Black spots appeared on my skin.”

Abdominal, chest and groin pain followed, accompanied by dizziness. Toxicology tests in New Zealand and London could not pinpoint the cause.

He fears the latest death threat is for posting the names of FSB agents on the Latvian website Kompromat.

Karpichkov says his contact is a ­senior officer in the FSB, Russia’s equivalent of MI5, “somewhere in Eastern Europe.” They communicate by so-called burner phones, pay-as-you go mobiles destroyed after each call.

Karpichkov recalls: “He told me something bad was about to happen to me. Extra-judicial killing is typical of the Russian state. It is used against anyone considered to be a traitor, ­political opponent, or even a critic.

“My contact gave me the list of marks who were to be hit and each of us falls into one of those categories.

“The Russian state poisons people all over the world and the hit on Skripal was an FSB op, no doubt about it.”

Karpichkov has learned of a meeting of the FSB Kolegia, a gathering of its high-ranking officers, last Monday – the day after Skripal was attacked.

(Image: Matt Sprake Photography)

He was told Vladimir Putin was also present and Karpichkov alleges he was briefed the hit had been a “success”. That verdict will need revising if Skripal survives. Karpichkov was a 24-year-old mechanical engineer when he joined the KGB, so had never met Skripal – a colonel in GRU military intelligence.

He rose to major in the Second Chief Directorate which mounted intelligence ops abroad. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1991, he transferred to KGB successor, the FSB. Had he shown a flair for assassination he might have ended up in Department 13, the so-called Department of Wet Affairs, whose agents had a licence to kill.

Karpichkov insists that although he was a trained killer he never became one – and refused orders to murder.

Raised in the then-Soviet Baltic state of Latvia he says he was brainwashed by Communism adding: “I thought it was the future for the entire world. I fancied myself as James Bond, but once I realised what the KGB/FSB was really about I became disillusioned.”

(Image: Nicholas Bowman/Sunday Mirror)

He claims to have spied on Latvia for the Russians and on Russia for the Latvians, the CIA and the French.

By 1998 the FSB had rumbled him and he was thrown into jail. On ­temporary release he fled to Britain using false travel documents for himself and his family – a wife and two children.

The defection, he says, earned him a death sentence from his ex-bosses.

Karpichkov hoped MI5 would pay for a cosy new life in exchange for

the two suitcases full of top secret documents he brought with him.

But the agency was awash with ­defectors by then and could not afford another. A traitor to his own country and shunned by the British, Karpichkov became the spy left out in the cold.

He says now: “All I can do is look over my shoulder. I don’t care about myself, but I do care about my family.”

Brit: They're out to get me

A British financier said tonight that he has been the target of Russian assassins for a long time.

Bill Browder, 53, has been trying to expose the “looting” of his investments in the country by corrupt officials for more than 10 years. He said: “I’ve been the subject of death threats and I know I’m on their list.”

The London hedge fund boss added: “Russia views the UK as a totally weak hand and a place where they can get away with murder.

“Vladimir Putin treats us with total disdain and disrespect. Many members of the Putin regime have come to buy property in the UK and it should be seized.

“If the Government continues to allow Russia to get away with murder, they will murder me one day.”

No fear of reprisals

By Paul Knott

Second Secretary at British Embassy in Moscow

The reality is Russia has done this before. Can we take action that’s strong enough to deter them again?

It may well have come into their calculation that Brexit means Britain has isolated itself, so there might be more chance of getting away with it.

Russia is in the grip of Vladimir Putin, and it does operate like a mafia state. We need to go after the senior people in the system.

If you cause them some personal pain by freezing assets and things like that it would certainly help.

Russia is a very centralised, dictatorial system and if it is responsible there’s no way anyone could do anything as big as this without Putin’s approval.

Using a nerve agent shows they don’t fear our response. Part of the point is they want people to know they did it. This could happen again, unless their desire to assassinate defectors is outweighed by the consequences of doing so.

Early days for victims

By Alastair Hay

Professor of Environmental Toxicology at Leeds University

Spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia are critically ill but stable in hospital.

Toxic nerve agents bind to and inhibit a chemical that sends messages to muscles so they do not contract and relax properly.

Atropine has to be given as long as there is nerve agent present. Another antidote, oxime, is also administered.

Certain oxime chemicals may also restore enzyme activity and help a return to normal muscle function.

The nerve agent itself will eventually be metabolised and excreted.

Convulsions are common in nerve agent poisonings and are controlled by the anticonvulsant diazepam.

The victims may need help breathing. Recovery after such a severe poisoning is complicated and prolonged, particularly if there is an effect on the brain.

These are early days and we can only wish Sergei and Yulia well.