I don’t believe it is in Russia’s interest to do so.
It was definitely in their interest to kill the guy, but not at the cost of CW sanctions. They are severe if implemented.
For your scenario to be plausible, Russia would have intended to get caught using a nerve agent to kill a traitor to their state. On foreign soil.
When they could have easily killed him in an untraceable fashion.
It doesn’t add up. At least to me.
For your scenario to be plausible, Russia would have intended to get caught using a nerve agent to kill a traitor to their state. On foreign soil.
Russia is already under significant sanctions from their invasion of Ukraine. Nothing to lose there.
And Putin is former KGB and may have taken Skripal's actions personally and want to set an example for other former agents that might try what he was doing.