the times | Thursday December 3 2020 1GM 21
News
Sergei Skripal, the former Russian spy,
still has difficulty breathing almost
three years after he was poisoned with
the nerve agent novichok in Salisbury,
his niece has claimed.
Viktoria Skripal, 48, told Russian
state media that she received a tele-
phone call last month from Yulia Skri-
pal, Mr Skripal’s daughter. It was the
first time she had heard from her in
more than a year, she said.
While Mr Skripal’s daughter has fully
recovered from the poisoning, he was
said still to be “in a tight spot” and was
far from fully recovered from his near-
death experience.
Viktoria, who lives in Yaroslavl,
Russia, about 170 miles northeast of
Moscow with Mr Skripal’s 93-year-old
mother, Elena, said that Yulia had told
her that she and her father talked by
phone. However, it was “difficult for
him to talk due to a tracheostomy”. She
cannot see him in person because of
coronavirus restrictions.
Sergei, 69, and Yulia, 36, were found
unconscious on a bench in Salisbury in
March 2018 and spent weeks receiving
critical care in hospital. The Kremlin
has denied sending GRU military intel-
ligence officers to kill Mr Skripal.
According to a transcript of the con-
versation, which allegedly took place
Skripal still struggles to breathe
after novichok attack, says niece
on November 21 and was published by
Moskovsky Komsomolets, a Russian
tabloid, Yulia said that her father now
required a tracheal tube to breathe. He
also had a live-in nurse.
Her father remained under “security
restrictions”, she is reported to have
said, but “he tries to do some exercise”
and was allowed to go for walks outside
an unnamed city. His location remains
a closely guarded secret.
Yulia added that her father still feltguilty that she was caught up in the
attack, which took place on the day
after she had flown in from Russia.
“He cannot forgive himself for this in
any way. I tell him, ‘It’s good that I came.
If you were alone, no one would have
found you in the house, and you would
have died.’ At least we were on the
street, in a crowded place. He would
have had no chance if he was alone,” she
said.
Yulia is also said to have criticised her
former boyfriend Stepan Vikeev, 33,
who vanished after the poisoning,despite the couple’s plans to marry. She
said he “disappeared without a trace
when I was in hospital. He dumped me
immediately. Now I think that he is a
dead fool.”
Two Russians with links to the GRU,
known by the aliases Alexander Petrov
and Ruslan Boshirov, were seen on
CCTV in Salisbury the day before the
novichok poisoning.
The Russian government insists it
had nothing to do with the attack and
that the two men are civilians.
Although the Skripals survived,
Dawn Sturgess, who came into contact
with a discarded perfume bottle that
was believed to have been used in the
attack, died in July 2018. Her partner,
Charlie Rowley, was left seriously ill but
recovered.
The flat in Amesbury, seven miles
north of Salisbury, where Ms Sturgess
was fatally poisoned was demolished in
October this year.
Yulia Skripal was said to have told
Viktoria that she and her father were
both now living in Britain but had not
seen each other for some time because
of the pandemic restrictions, adding: “I
really want to go to New Zealand, but at
the moment, there’s no way.”
She said that she was working as a
freelance project manager, but gave no
details. “I had a lot of experience before
with international companies, so I amgetting contracts and work from
home,” Yulia was reported to have said.
She is said to have added: “I also do
sports a lot, go to the gym five times a
week.”
While she may have access to a pri-
vate gym, public gyms in England have
been closed during lockdown and have
reopened under the tier system with
heavy restrictions.
Viktoria Skripal said that the family’s
surname still caused them problems in
Russia. A relative had been unable to
sell his flat because potential buyers
were put off once they heard the name.
“You have no idea, it’s totally ridicu-
lous. One man ran down the stairs
yelling ‘novichok!’ You can’t sell a prop-
erty with that surname,” she said.
Sergei Skripal is a former Russian
army colonel who was convicted by
Moscow of passing the identities of
Russian agents working undercover in
Europe to MI6. He was handed over
to Britain in 2010 as part of a spy
swap.
A British security source ques-
tioned Viktoria’s claims, telling the
Daily Mirror that they were likely to
be at least partially fabricated: “She
would not be allowed to share loca-
tion details.
“That would be a breach of pro-
tocols. That casts doubt on what
this woman is saying.”Marc Bennetts Moscow
Billionaire’s
son told to
return or
face prison
Jonathan Ames Legal EditorStar subjects Audrey Hepburn on the set of How to Steal a Million in 1966 and Paul Newman captured during filming of Baby Want a Kiss in 1964 are among portraits
by some of the world’s greatest photographers on display in Blow-up: Icons Up-Close and Personal at the Iconic Images Gallery in London from today until February 28
Temur Akhmedov
is being sued by
his mother
Tatiana
AkhmedovaSergei Skripal’s
niece said he was
far from fully
recovered from
the 2018 attackTERRY O’NEILL/LAWRENCE FRIED/ICONIC IMAGESThe son of a Russian oligarch has been
threatened with jail if he fails to travel
from Moscow to London to face claims
that he helped his father to avoid pay-
ing his mother a £450 million divorce
settlement.
Temur Akhmedov was accused this
week of being his father’s “lieutenant”
in a long-running fight between Fark-
had Akhmedov, 65, a tycoon under-
stood to be close to President Putin, and
Tatiana Akhmedova.
Mr Akhmedov, 27, a City trader, told
the court over a video link yesterday
that he had been “drinking a lot” under
the stress of the case. Mrs Justice
Knowles, sitting in the High Court, or-
dered him to return to appear in court
or face contempt proceedings.
The financier is being sued by his
mother after becoming embroiled in
her divorce fight with his billionaire
father. Ms Akhmedova, who lives in
London, was awarded a 41.5 per cent
share of her former husband’s fortune
by the High Court in 2016.
Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, who heard
the original case, made the award in
what is considered to be the largest of
its kind in Britain. A succession of court
hearings has been told, however, that
Ms Akmedova has so far retrieved only
about £5 million from her former hus-
band and he has not made any pay-
ments voluntarily.
Ms Akhmedova has claimed that her
former husband and their son had con-
spired to put his assets beyond her
reach. She has taken legal action in
London and abroad in an attempt to en-
force the original order. Two years after
the divorce award, Mr Justice Haddon-
Cave ruled that Mr Akhmedov was in
contempt of court. Ms Akhmedova, 52,
heard this week that the trial would be
delayed after Mrs Justice Knowles was
told that her son was in Russia, and was
no longer represented by lawyers.
The judge asked why he had travelled
to Russia and was not in London. Mr
Akhmedov, who disputes allegations
made against him, told the judge that he
had been trying to get a loan to pay his
legal fees and “got stressed” and
“scared”. He added: “It’s a lot of stress. I
am being sued by my mother. I am
drinking a lot.”
He suggested that he had nowhere to
stay in London and told the judge: “I am
not going to call my mother, saying can
I come and live in your house, although
you are suing me.”
A spokesman for Mr Akhmedov said:
“Temur will be on his way to London
shortly and looks forward to giving his
evidence in full in the High Court next
week.”
The court hearing was adjourned
until next Monday.