PROBE INTO SUDDEN DEATH OF SPY’S SON
THE death of Sergei Skripal’s son will be investigated as part the inquiry into the attack on the double-agent amid doubts over the official account of what happened to him.
In the past five years the former spy’s wife, son and elder brother have all died – and family have said they believe some of the deaths may be suspicious.
Mr Skripal’s son Alexander, 43, is reported to have died last year while on holiday in St Petersburg with his girlfriend after being taken to hospital with ‘liver failure’.
Yesterday, a Russian news agency in the city said it had not been able to find any record of his death.
The Fontanka news agency said they had found evidence that Alexander and a woman called Anna, 49, had bought high-speed train tickets to the city from Moscow. It said they arrived on July 13 last year and were due to depart on the July 15, but it was unclear if they ever left. The report added: ‘We have failed to find traces of him dying in St Petersburg.’
Alexander’s body is in London Road cemetery in Salisbury.
There is speculation that Yulia may have flown from her home Moscow to be with her father in Salisbury for the date of her late brother’s birthday. She is Mr Skripal’s only remaining child and regularly visited him.
Wiltshire and Swindon coroner’s service said they had no record of an inquest into Alexander – which would be standard practice if there was suspicious circumstances around the death of someone whose body was brought into the UK.
Mr Skripal’s wife Liudmila died in 2012, aged 59. She was diagnosed with cancer in Russia and is also buried at London Road.
Two years ago Mr Skripal’s older brother died after a ‘prolonged illness’, says the BBC. He is believed to have been Valery Skripal, 68, who had a distinguished military career.