YAROSLAVL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2020) The niece of poisoned former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, Viktoria, told Sputnik on Wednesday that she had informed the Russian Investigative Committee about the phone call she had received from Skripal's daughter Yulia, who is in the United Kingdom.
On Tuesday, Viktoria Skripal, who lives in the Russian city of Yaroslavl, said Yulia called her family on Sunday to ask about her grandmother, Sergei's 93-year-old mother. Viktoria said her uncle last called in June 2019. According to Yulia, her father still has a stoma bag but is fine overall. Viktoria added that Yulia did not say whether she planned to call them again. According to Viktoria, both she and her father live in the UK albeit in different places.
"I reported the information about the call to the Investigative Committee. My phone automatically records all conversations, so I have an audio recording of this conversation. If the investigators need it, I am ready to provide it, as I have done it before. So far I was just asked what the conversation was about, and the audio recording was not requested," Viktoria said.
The woman added that the phone conversation with Yulia took place without the involvement of foreign intelligence agents this time.
"Before, Yulia would ask someone in English at the beginning of the call whether she could start speaking. ... This time � no. Also, she used to use UK phone numbers, and now she used IP-telephony, and her number was displayed as [the one made from] St. Petersburg. Besides, for the first time, we talked openly about everything for so long and a lot. We talked for almost an hour," Skripal told Sputnik.
The cousins also spoke about Yulia's apartment sold in Moscow, about her dog, which she left in Russia. After the Salisbury incident, the dog stayed in an animal hotel, but later it was adopted.
"Yulia said that her dad's retirement plan was divided into two, she gets half and he gets half. They live separately, she works in a company, works with logistics, now remotely," Viktoria added.
Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in March 2018 in the UK city of Salisbury. The United Kingdom believes that Russia played a role in what it calls a murder attempt, an allegation Moscow has denied. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in May of last year that there was no evidence incriminating Moscow.
