RTTue, 10 Apr 2018 15:14 UTC
© Reuters
Yulia Skripal, the daughter of former double agent Sergei, has been discharged from hospital, five weeks after being exposed to a nerve agent in Salisbury.
The Russian embassy in London welcomed confirmation of Skripal's release from hospital, but appealed for "urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will."
Last week, Yulia, 33, spoke to her Moscow-based cousin Viktoria, who recorded the phone conversation and shared it with Russian state media. In the recording, Yulia told her cousin that she was "being discharged soon." She also said that her father Sergei, 66, was "resting now, he's sleeping." She added: "Everyone's health is OK. No one has had any irreversible [harm]."
Media reports suggest that the US is prepared to resettle the Skripals under new identities. Russia's UN envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, has warned that such a move points to the CIA's role in the poisoning saga and could see the Skripals disappear without providing key evidence on the case.
Comment: An interesting development. So what are we to make of the media reports suggesting that MI6 wanted to "disappear" the Skripals by putting them in witness protection in another country - with no public statement from either of them confirming that's what they actually want? See:
Chemical Cover-up Continues: British Consider 'Disappearing' Skripals Somewhere in The Anglosphere. Moscow responded, saying that such an action would be seen by them as
citizen abduction.
The embassy said any secret relocation of the duo from their current position in the Wiltshire town of Salisbury would negate any chance of hearing their account of what happened on March 4, when Sergei and Yulia were struck by a powerful military-grade nerve agent.
"The world, while having no opportunity to interact with them, will have every reason to see this as an abduction of two Russian nationals or at least as their isolation," the embassy's website said.
...
Yulia, a Russian citizen who lived in Moscow and was attacked in the UK while visiting her father, reportedly intends to seek political asylum in Britain, Russia's RIA news agency reported on Monday.
"I know that Yulia Skripal's statement about political asylum is coming already," her cousin, Viktoria Skripal, said on a Russian TV talk show, according to RIA.
That makes it sound as if Viktoria thinks Yulia might genuinely want asylum.
This should clarify what she thinks: 'I fear Yulia will now be pushed to disown us and get political asylum - and we will never be able to see her and Sergei again.'
The hospital's handling of the case (and the Skripals) has been abysmal, but they're probably under a lot of pressure to obey. See:
Note that in that first article, Helmer addressed his letter to Blanshard, the woman making the statement in the video above. She has refused to confirm that Yulia and Sergei have signed consent forms. Blanshard has claimed to be speaking on their behalf, but we have nothing but her word to confirm if that's true or not. Here's what she had to say in today's
statement:
"All three had been exposed to a nerve agent," Blanshard said. She added that the Skripals had "both received round-the-clock care" throughout the last four weeks.
"I won't go into great detail about the treatment but nerve agents attach themselves to certain enzymes in the body. This results in hallucinations and sickness. We then needed to use a variety of drugs to supplement the patients to create more enzymes to fight the poisoning," she said.
"Both patients have responded exceptionally well to the treatment we've been providing, but equally, both patients are at different stages in their recovery.
"Her father has also made good progress. On Friday, I announced he was no longer in a critical condition. Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope that he too will be able to leave hospital in due course."
Yep, it's a "miracle", all right.
Comment: An interesting development. So what are we to make of the media reports suggesting that MI6 wanted to "disappear" the Skripals by putting them in witness protection in another country - with no public statement from either of them confirming that's what they actually want? See: Chemical Cover-up Continues: British Consider 'Disappearing' Skripals Somewhere in The Anglosphere. Moscow responded, saying that such an action would be seen by them as citizen abduction. That makes it sound as if Viktoria thinks Yulia might genuinely want asylum. This should clarify what she thinks: 'I fear Yulia will now be pushed to disown us and get political asylum - and we will never be able to see her and Sergei again.'
The hospital's handling of the case (and the Skripals) has been abysmal, but they're probably under a lot of pressure to obey. See: