Face of spy girl’s fiancé with links to Kremlin
Partner goes into hiding amid fears he was ‘honeytrap’ for poison victim
THE mysterious fiance of Salisbury attack victim Yulia Skripal allegedly works for a shadowy organisation which is part of Vladimir Putin’s feared FSB intelligence service, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
Stepan Vikeev – seen clearly for the first time in our exclusive picture – vanished after Yulia and her double agent father Sergei Skripal were poisoned with a Russian nerve agent last month.
Moscow security sources have claimed Mr Vikeev, 30, works for a secretive company called the
‘Sergei Skripal had reservations about him’
Institute of Modern Security Problems. The clandestine organisation is run by his mother Tatiana, 61, and is said to be an ‘integral part’ of the FSB, which replaced the KGB at the end of the Soviet Union.
Both Mr Vikeev and his mother – also pictured exclusively today – have gone into hiding since the Skripal attack and are being protected by Putin’s agents, according to well-placed sources.
FSB commanders have even blocked access to Moscow authorities who want to interview Mr Vikeev as part of a Russian probe into the case, it was claimed. Our disclosures deepen suspicions that Mr Vikeev and his mother had a role in the Skripal poisoning which Britain has blamed on Russia.
A UK intelligence dossier recently revealed Russian hackers had spied on Yulia’s emails since 2013 in a bid to track her and her father’s lives.
Now Mr Vikeev’s links to the FSB raise the prospect that he was a ‘honeytrap’ planted to keep a close eye on Yulia and her ‘traitor’ father after he was sent to the UK in a spy swap deal in 2010.
Sources said Mr Skripal, 66, was not fond of Mr Vikeev. A source close to the family said: ‘Sergei had reservations about Stepan but she told her father she wanted to be with Stepan.’ But Mr Vikeev has made no contact with his fiance and her family since the attack.
Miss Skripal, 33, was left very upset when she attempted to call Mr Vikeev but he did not answer his phone after she made a remarkable recovery in hospital.
She was discharged from hospital earlier this month and is being guarded by police in a secret location in Britain. She is expected to be granted political asylum to stay in the UK.
Her father – a Soviet military intelligence officer who was jailed for selling secrets to MI6 – remains in hospital but he is no longer in a critical condition.
It emerged yesterday that key suspects have been identified by Scotland Yard counter-terrorism investigators examining passenger lists from flights in and out of Britain around the time of the attack. Last night one was reported to be a 54-year-old former FSB agent, codenamed Gordon.
Miss Skripal’s friends and family have described Mr Vikeev as ‘strange,’ and they have been alarmed by his complete lack of contact with his fiancée or her family since the poisoning.
Miss Skripal’s best friend Irina Petrova said she used to complain she was often home alone at night because Mr Vikeev worked night shifts at a ‘special government organisation.’ Neighbours at the flat in Moscow where the couple lived said Mr Vikeev’s mother was a regular visitor before Miss Skripal’s ill-fated trip to visit her father in Salisbury last month. Miss Skripal and Mr Vikeev had recently celebrated his 30th birthday together and he was the last person to talk to her on the phone from her aircraft as she prepared for takeoff in Moscow. Mr Vikeev deleted his social media profiles and pictures soon after the poisoning on March 4. Friends said he ‘went into hiding’. One close acquaintance said: ‘No one saw him and he stopped communicating. He did not answer calls or text messages.’ The FSB is seen as being behind several assassinations of President Putin’s enemies, including former spy Alexander Litvinenko who was killed in London in 2006 by polonium poisoning. Britain has claimed the Skripals were poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent developed in Russia. The Kremlin has strongly denied any involvement in the Salisbury attack and launched its own probe into the case led by the Investigative Committee, which is Russia’s equivalent of the FBI. Several sources said the Committee know the whereabouts of Mr Vikeev and his mother in the suburbs of Moscow, but have failed to obtain permission from the FSB to quiz them.