Mishkin’s GP gran was so proud... she had no idea
»»Yulia Skripal’s fiance vanished »»Cousin fears she is on hitlist
careered out of control, for no apparent reason. It smashed into the central reservation and the couple clambered out – lucky to escape with their lives.
Shaken Viktoria said: “It’s certainly a possibility something suspicious happened to the car. We were pretty shaken but just pleased to be alive.
“We cannot rule out that someone has been watching us. I really don’t know if it was just an accident or not.”
Her husband Arseny said: “I was driving at around 65mph when I felt it pull to the left, then to the right – then we hit the central reservation.
“I am meticulous about checking the car before we drive down to Moscow and for some reason I didn’t do it on this occasion.”
Viktoria added: “Yulia has told me she will not call any more.
“But we just want to know she and uncle Sergei are ok – just the occasional posting on social media for example.”
But that is highly unlikely as the Skripals were spirited away to a safe house after leaving hospital. They may even have left the UK. They are very unlikely to use any media that could reveal their location. Around 185 miles away, in Moscow, Yulia’s brand new expensive Ford Kuga sits abandoned in a car park outside her apartment. It was her pride and joy but now it has been left dumped.
Someone has reversed into it and there is damage to the front wing.
The brown Ford, with religious icons on the dash, has been left so long a local garage has put a flyer on the windscreen offering to clean and service it.
It sits outside the two bedroom apartment where Yulia lived with her fiance Stepan Vikeev and their two dogs. Her beloved pet Noir is still in kennels pining for his owner. Yulia drove 150 miles to place Noir in those kennels – nobody knows why as there are dozens closer.
Alex Olifer, the owner of the fifth floor apartment, has now rented it out to another couple. Someone came and quietly moved all Yulia and Stepans’ possesnew sions, but the car remains. He said: “I can confirm they rented the apartment but am not prepared to say more than that.”
It is a shabby area with locals sitting outside on dark green benches smoking, bemused at the car still being there. Stepan has disappeared.
It emerged that he worked for a clandestine organisation called the Institute of Modern Security Problems.
His mother Tatiana headed the unit, thought to be “an integral part” of the FSB – which replaced the KGB secret service.
One friend said: “No one has seen him. He has vanished off the face of the earth.
“There are two schools of thought – the first was that he was a ‘honeytrap’ involved with the Russian authorities right from the very start.
“Therefore he is now being protected by the FSB in a safe house where no one will find him. Or has his mother, who is very wealthy, whisked him away for a life. There are more questions than answers on him and their relationship.
“I know his mother didn’t like him dating the daughter of Sergei Skripal. It was well known she was the daughter of a treacherous spy.
“She was openly hostile to Yulia.
“When she came to visit she even had rows with the neighbours about keeping the doors to the apartment block open.”
Tatiana now lives in the city of Padolsk.
When the Mirror tried to chat to her she refused to speak, before jumping into a limousine and heading off to work.
A neighbour said: “They had two dogs in the flat – Yulia’s Noir and a Newfoundland that belonged to Stepan.
“But you never saw them out together – they always walked their dogs separately.”
She added: “It was always strange, very strange.” SALISBURY novichok assassin Alexander Mishkin was inspired to be a medic by his gran, who was a GP.
But he chose a very different path, using his training to join the GRU and team up with his accomplice on the Skripal hit, Colonel Anatoly Chepiga.
Chepiga was born in a region on the Chinese border and Mishkin grew up in the tiny village of Loyga – a 17-hour train ride from Moscow. The pair became pals when they worked together in the capital.
Mishkin’s gran was so proud of his success she put a photo of him with Vladimir Putin on her wall and showed it off to visitors.
One friend said: “She knew he worked for the Russian services but had no idea Col Chepiga what sort of work. She was so proud of him. The photo was on the wall and she made sure any visitors saw it. She’s not been home for some time now. She left last month before the news broke of her grandson’s involvement.”
Mishkin and Chepiga moved up the GRU ladder quickly and both bought expensive flats in Moscow.
Chepiga’s home was in building 11/2 on Grimau Street – near Luzhniki Stadium, which hosted the World Cup final. Mishkin lived at Apartment 379 in block 3/1 at Marshala Katakova St. Both flats are now empty and the pair, both 39, have vanished.
“Go away,” shouted one neighbour. “Dr Mishkin is a Russian hero. We don’t believe anything we hear from Britain.”