So hard, but Sergei knows the perils of a call only too well
IT would technically be possible for Sergei Skripal to speak to his mother without the Russians finding out where he is.
His MI5 handlers would be able to arrange a phone call from his safe house, which is likely to be somewhere in the British countryside.
However, it seems he has chosen not to contact his mother and this would make sense for an ex-spy rooted in the tradecraft of the GRU military intelligence agency.
He knows any contact from him could put her under tremendous pressure so, heartbreakingly, it seems he may never speak to his mum again.
Inevitably, the Russian intelligence machine will be monitoring and listening in on her phone calls so they could pressurise her to “script” the call.
This means they will order her to steer him towards
a certain conversation to maximise the amount of intelligence they can glean from him.
Even knowing he is still in the UK would be of use to an intelligence officer eager to please his spymasters and, ultimately, Putin.
It would be inhuman to put this elderly lady under such pressure to betray her son and he knows that, for her sake, he should not contact her.
He also knows that he would have to be so careful in the conversation that it would be stilted – and probably leave her feeling worse than before.