Daughter of Russian spy speaks out after attack
Russia warns Britain ‘you’re playing with fire’
The daughter of a former Russian spy poisoned by a nerve agent said yesterday in her first public comment that she’s recovering even as the international furor over the attack intensified, with Russia warning Britain it is “playing with fire”.
At the United Nations, Russia claimed that intelligence services of other countries were probably behind the attack. But Britain’s UN Ambassador Karen Piece shot back that Russia has come up with 24 theories on who bears responsibility for the poisoning, but the United Kingdom has only one — that it’s highly likely Russia was responsible.
Yulia Skripal, 33, said in a statement released by British police that her “strength is growing daily” and she expressed gratitude to those who came to her aid when she and her father, Sergei, were found unconscious on a bench a month ago.
“I am sure you appreciate that the entire episode is somewhat disorientating, and I hope that you’ll respect my privacy and that of my family during the period of my convalescence,” she said.
The hospital in the English city of Salisbury confirmed that Yulia’s health has improved, while her 66-year-old father, Sergei Skripal, remains in critical condition.
At the UN, the confrontation between Russia and Britain and more than two dozen Western allies who have expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats in a show of solidarity intensified.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia claimed that Russia that was the victim of a hasty, sloppy and ill-intentioned defamation campaign by Britain and its allies.
Moscow assumes “with a high degree of probability” that the intelligence services of other countries are likely responsible for the incident, Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said.
“Since the British authorities dare to state that behind the incident in Salisbury is Russia’s responsibility with a high degree of probability, well we also with a high degree of probability are assuming that the intelligence services of certain countries are behind the mega-provocation,” he said. Nebenzia said “everything confirms this is a co-ordinated, very well- planned campaign” intended “to discredit and even delegitimise Russia”.
He refused to name the intelligence services that Russia suspects, but said their goal is to accuse Moscow of using “a horrible, inhumane weapon, of concealing the arsenal of this substance,” of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention, and putting in question Russia’s “role not only in finding a solution in Syria, but anywhere else”.
He also warned: “We have told our British colleagues that you are playing with fire and you will be sorry.”
Britain’s Pierce said Russia’s 24 theories for the attack include blaming it on terrorists and saying Britain wanted to distract from Brexit, its departure from the European Union.
After trading barbs about Sherlock Holmes, Nebenzia and Pierce resorted to nonsensical fantasy with the Russian ambassador reading a passage from Alice in Wonderland and the British ambassador responding with a witty passage from the book that says: “I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast”.
Adding to the intrigue was a recording aired yesterday by Russian state Rossiya TV of a purported phone call between Yulia Skripal and her cousin in Russia. In the call, Yulia Skripal allegedly said she and her father were recovering and in normal health, and that her father’s health was not irreparably damaged.
Rossiya TV said Skripal’s niece, Viktoria, who lives in Moscow, gave it the purported recording, although the broadcaster said it could not verify its authenticity.
Moscow has sent home more than 150 envoys in an all-out diplomatic war unseen even at the height of the Cold War.
As part of the diplomatic row, Russia last week ordered 60 US diplomats to leave the country in retaliation for Washington’s expulsion of the same number of Russians.
Ahead of the UN meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the British accusations against Moscow as a mockery of international law.