Poisoned spy Sergei Skripal reportedly requires medical assistance when breathing, ten weeks after he was discharged from hospital following a nerve agent attack.
A relative of the Skripals’ told Russian state TV the former Russian military colonel has a tracheostomy tube inserted into his windpipe to prevent breathing problems.
Sergei’s cousin Viktoria, 46, told viewers that Yulia had told the family during a telephone call that her father is due to have the pipe removed in three days.
Yulia and her father Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain´s MI6 foreign spy service, were found unconscious on a public bench in the British city of Salisbury on March 4
The disclosure – if correct – will heighten concern over the 67 year old ex-spy’s health following his release from Salisbury District Hospital in mid-May.
Viktoria – who cares for her grandmother Yelena at her home in Yaroslavl – relayed Yulia’s words to the chat show.
She said Yulia said: ‘I am in London with papa. He can’t speak because he’s got a tracheostomy, that pipe, which will be taken off in three days.
‘Now when he speaks with that pipe, his voice is first of all very weak and secondly he makes quite a lot of wheeze.
‘So babushka with your poor hearing you would really struggle to understand him. He’ll call after the tracheostomy is off.’
Yulia and her father Sergei were poisoned with the chemical agent Novichok and were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury, on March 4.
Sergei’s cousin Viktoria, 46, told viewers that Yulia had told the family during a telephone call that her father is due to have the pipe removed in three days. Viktoria – who cares for her grandmother Yelena at her home in Yaroslavl – relayed Yulia’s words to the chat show
But she also claimed that Yulia had told her that until recently she had not had proper access to the internet.
Yulia had been angry with Viktoria during a telephone call on July 7 over her cousin’s campaign for more information from Britain on the pair.
According to Viktoria, Yulia told her this week: ‘I finally got internet, and I read everything. I understood everything. Forgive me.’
Britain – which accuses the Russian state of being behind the novichok attack – has twice refused Viktoria a visa to visit her family members.
The disclosure – if correct – will heighten concern over the 67 year old ex-spy’s health following his release from Salisbury District Hospital in mid-May
The TV show heard claims by prominent TV personality Andrey Karaulov, a studio guest, that Sergei may be dead – and Britain was covering this up.
He asked Viktoria: ‘Do you actually believe that Sergey Skripal is alive?’
She replied: ‘I really want to hope so.’
Karaulov said there would be no picture of Skripal in three days when he supposedly came off the breathing machine.
‘We will never see or hear from him again,’ he predicted.
He accused Britain of staging a major ‘provocation’ to embarrass Vladimir Putin and Russia.
‘Theresa May is coming to an end, partly because of this story,’ he claimed.
‘This was a major ideological plan which ended with something going wrong to Skripal. He is dead.
‘If he is alive then let’s ask the Queen, Prince Charles and other honourable people to tell us that this is true and that he is alive Or could it be that their own special services play up behind their backs?’
On 18 May it was reported that Sergei Skripal had been discharged from hospital.
Lorna Wilkinson, the director of nursing at the hospital, said at the time: ‘We have been able to discharge Sergei Skripal.
‘This is an important stage in his recovery, which will now take place away from the hospital.’