‘TODAY, Scotland Yard and the British government are refusing to communicate with us, no answer, the telephones are switched off. And that brings us to the very sad conclusions, why is this happening here?’ Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian Ambassador to the UK, said yesterday.
He was speaking at a press conference on the poisoning of the former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. He added: ‘This happened on British soil. What can we do without the British side? ‘Our job is very simple, we have to engage the British side in a joint investigation. Or of course maybe someone will help us convince the British to investigate jointly.
‘Because for us it is very clear; these people were poisoned and for us, they are Russian citizens and a criminal case has opened in Russia and we want to know the truth and it is very serious.
‘We have a lot of suspicions about Britain. If you take the last ten years, so many Russian citizens died here in the UK under very strange circumstances.
‘The last one by the way, Nikolai Glushkov, he was strangled. He was a Russian citizen, not a British citizen. ‘And his case is also classified. We do not have any access to the investigation. ‘We don’t have anything, we want to know the truth. My question is why is this happening here?’
He later confirmed that Sergei Skripal’s niece, Viktoria Skripal, is waiting to visit London to see her relatives: ‘She is waiting for her British visa in Moscow. We will see what will be the outcome of that visit. But it does not replace our relations with the British side. I do not know for how long we have to wait. But it looks like the secrecy is all about this story.
‘She is waiting for her visa, and I hope the British government will issue this visa in time. We hope that the British side will arrange the visit to the hospital, because today nobody is allowed to come there. It is not just a regular hospital, it is the hospital in Salisbury and we believe that this is a humanitarian case. ‘We could expect that the visa will be issued as fast as possible. ‘Because everything is in the hands of the British government. Usually in these cases you can issue a visa in 24 hours. It is not a big deal. Still, she has been waiting for two days now.’
Viktoria Skripal said that she had a telephone call with her cousin Yulia, the Rossiya-1 TV channel reported yesterday. The call’s recording, provided by Viktoria, was made public during Rossiya-1’s 60-minute programme. The recording has Viktoria Skripal talking to Yulia Skripal. She says that she is doing fine. Viktoria informs her of her plans to come to London on Monday provided she receives a visa, but Yulia says that ‘no one will give you a visa’.
Yulia tells her cousin Viktoria: ‘Everything is OK. He (her father) is resting now, having a sleep. Everyone’s health is fine; there are no irreparable things. I will be discharged soon. Everything is OK.’
London’s Metropolitan Police has issued a statement on behalf of Yulia Skripal, in which she said: ‘I woke up over a week ago now and am glad to say my strength is growing daily. I am grateful for the interest in me and for the many messages of goodwill that I have received.
‘I have many people to thank for my recovery and would especially like to mention the people of Salisbury that came to my aid when my father and I were incapacitated. Further than that, I would like to thank the staff at Salisbury district hospital for their care and professionalism. ‘I am sure you appreciate that the entire episode is somewhat disorientating, and I hope that you’ll respect my privacy and that of my family during the period of my convalescence.’