The Home Office have refused Yulia Skripal’s cousin Viktoria a visa to visit Yulia and father Sergei, a former Russian spy in Britain were they are recovering from poisoning.
The refusal came hours after Viktoria who had previously released a tape purporting to be a telephone conversation with her cousin to Russian media, alleged that they had not suffered a chemical attack, rather food poisoning.
“I will stick with a simple theory that they ate something wrong at the pub, as well as the option that Yulia brought this with her on the plane from someone she knew,” Viktoria told Sky News, denying that they had been poisoned by Russia.
The Home Office confirmed tonight that they had denied Viktoria a visa to visit her relatives “on the grounds that her application did not comply with the Immigration Rules.”
But Viktoria hit back, telling Sky News that Britain “must have something to hide.”
Porton Down chemical weapons research lab have found that Skripal who left Russia in a spy swap, his daughter and a police officer who attended them in Salisbury town centre were they were taken ill, had traces of deadly nerve agent Novichok.
The Government insist that they were attacked by Russia with the banned chemical weapon in a growing diplomatic row. 28 other countires have joined the UK in taking diplomatic measures against Russia.
Earlier, Dr Christine Blanshard, medical director at Salisbury District Hospital, confirmed that Skripal who left Russia in a spy swap is “improving rapidly,” and like his daughter is no longer critical.
At a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday night, Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia warned that Britain was “playing with fire.”
“Novichok is not copyrighted by Russia in spite of the obviously Russian name,” insisted the amabassador. “It is a name invented in the West for a line of toxic substances, which are nothing new for experts and scientists, and developed in many countries including the US and Britain.”
He added: “we have told our British colleagues that ‘you’re playing with fire and you’ll be sorry’.”
“We cannot ignore what has happened in Salisbury,” responded the British ambassador Karen Pierce.
“We cannot ignore Russia turning a blind eye to the use of chemical weapons in Syria and in Salisbury.
“And we cannot ignore the way that Russia seeks to undermine the international institutions which have kept us safe since the end of the Second World War.”
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/russia-and-america-the-unending-tension/02/04/
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/watch-jeremy-corbyn-accuses-boris-johnson-of-misleading-public-on-the-poisoning-of-sergei-and-yulia-skripal/05/04/
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/politics/spy-poisoning-scandal-shows-we-cant-rely-on-russia-to-keep-britains-light-on/14/03/
