The Mail on Sunday

Hacker alert over sinister post on Yulia Skripal’s site

- By Michael Powell

HACKERS could be behind a cryptic post on the social media account of the daughter of Russian spy Sergei Skripal when she was still in a coma following the nerve-agent attack.

A link was posted on Yulia Skripal’s account to a well- known Russian song entitled Don’t Lose Heart from a popular Soviet-era children’s film, on March 7.

The posting was made three days after the Salisbury attack – when Miss Skripal, 33, pictured, was heavily sedated in hospital – leading to suspicions her account may have been hacked. Poignant lyrics include: ‘Did it happen by the will of fate, or is it due to our nature? Why do we for heaven’s sake have so many enemies?’

The discovery comes after British intelligen­ce revealed that Russian agents hacked Miss Skripal’s emails for at least five years before she and her father were poisoned.

Her relatives were left baffled by the message posted on her profile on VK.com – a Russian site similar t o Facebook – when she was sedated in an intensive care unit. The song is from a film Gardes-Marines, Ahead! about 18th Century Russian soldiers. One of the last lines is: ‘Russians pay for happiness – not with money, but life.’ Natalia Skripal, a cousin of Sergei Skripal, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I cried my eyes out when I saw it. It was posted on March 7, so it must have been somebody who knew her who posted it, I guess. It is a mystery.’ On Friday, it emerged that cyber specialist­s from Russian intelligen­ce had targeted e ma i l accounts belonging to Miss Skripal as long ago as 2013. She was not available for comment l ast night. Discharged from hospital last week, she is said to be under armed guard in a secure location. Her father, a former double agent branded a traitor by the Kremlin, is expected to be released from hospital soon.

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