Skripal was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in March but has survived.
The former Russian spy nearly killed by a poisoning attempt has recovered and left the hospital.
Former military colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench near his home in Salisbury, U. K., in early March, a discovery that sparked a massive international fallout.
British officials laid blame for the attack on Skripal, who was convicted in Moscow in 2006 of selling spy secrets to London, at the feet of Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.
Russia has repeatedly denied the claims, though the U. K. and a host of other countries including the U. S. kicked out a small army of Moscow’s diplomats in response.
Observers had feared that Skripal would follow the same fate as Alexander Litvinenko, another Russian defector killed in London in 2006, though his daughter was released last month and he had left medical care by Friday morning.
“This is an important step in his recovery, which will now take place away from the hospital,” Salisbury District Hospital’s Director of Nursing Lorna Wilkinson said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear where Skripal had gone, though on the release of Yulia Skripal British media reported that she had been taken to a secure location by security services.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said that the Skripals are being held against their will, and has previously complained about a lack of consular access to Yulia Skripal, despite her rejecting the invitation.
It is not immediately clear why Skripal, who lived a quiet life in England after being exchanged from his Russian treason sentence in a spy swap, would be targeted.
Though he was apparently out of the spy game, the New York Times reported that Skripal had in recent years met with intelligence agencies from the Czech Republic and Estonia about Russian spy operations.
