A March 2021 BBC News article stated that the SPM had, "echoed [...] Russian disinformation narratives," in a number of publications by suggesting that the governments of the United States and United Kingdom had a motive to kill Russian dissident Sergei Skripal in order to prevent him from testifying in a libel case against former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. The view of the UK government and the OPWC is that Skripal, a former Russian spy, was poisoned by Russian secret service agents.