Niece of double agent poisoned in Salisbury speaks out on Amesbury, novichok and a future political career in Russia

Exclusive: Critics have accused her of exploiting events in Salisbury for her own political agenda and being in the pocket of the Kremlin, accusations that will inevitably be repeated in light of her latest comments.

“Half of the city calls me a British bitch,” says Viktoria Skripal. “They say Theresa May is now trying to plant spies here in Yaroslavl – but I don’t care.”

Ms Skripal, relative of Sergei and Yulia, could hardly have picked a worse week to begin a run for public office in her home city, 250km (155 miles) north east of Moscow. But the woman with a famous surname is not about to let events – or other people’s opinions – get in the way.

The 45-year-old accountant is, quite simply, relentless. She has her mobile glued to her face. We move from the family Chevrolet to downtown Yaroslavl, then to her flat, a two-bedroomed apartment she shares with 90-year-old Granny Skripal, her husband, and two children.

Critics have accused her of manipulating events in Salisbury for her own political agenda, and also of being in the pocket of the Kremlin.

Viktoria Skripal, at her apartment in Yaroslavl, showing one of her UK visa rejection letters (Oliver Carroll)

Throughout the interview, Ms Skripal is ordering builders and plumbers; arranging meetings with journalists; complaining to friends about the British government; or gossiping about the latest news from Amesbury, where two members of the public have been exposed to novichok – the nerve agent used in the attempted assassination of Sergei and Yulia in March.

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Thursday again reiterated the government's belief that the Kremlin was responsible for that attack, calling it a "barbaric and inhumane" attack by the Russians.

She says she does not understand why people are blaming the Kremlin for that incident. There were more obvious explanations, she said. Perhaps it had something to do with Porton Down, the nearby secret military research facility – “they’ve had enough experimenting on animals.” Perhaps a maniac was going around town, “spraying some dodgy substance” into people’s faces. Perhaps it was a run-of-the-mill domestic dispute, she said.

We all studied chemistry at school, we watched the films. We know a military grade substance when we see it

Viktoria Skripal 

What was not at play was a military grade nerve agent, she insisted: “We all studied chemistry at school, we watched the films. We know a military grade substance when we see it.”

The latest news from England brought back bad memories. Of the moment she turned on the television and found that her uncle had been poisoned. When she realised the unidentified woman fighting for her life was her cousin Yulia.

“I remember calling her, and we had this agreement to always answer – regardless. She didn’t answer once, twice, three times. That’s when I knew.”

What followed was difficult. For weeks, journalists camped outside her modest home in the sleepy suburbs of working-class Yaroslavl. Her family were unable to leave the flat. She tried to travel to Britain to see the relatives but hit a brick wall of bureaucracy. She was refused a visa twice – told her travelling was not consistent with the interests of Britain or her relatives.

She was hardly on good terms with that side of the family, she admits. She never got on with her cousin. Yulia, who spent much of her childhood in Europe – first Malta, then Spain – was distant. When Yulia returned to Russia she “looked down” on her “plump, simple cousin from the provinces”.

Sergei Skripal tried on various occasions to smooth relations between the cousins, but to no success.

The conflict is now played out every couple of weeks on national TV. Since mid-March, Viktoria has become a star of Russian state TV. And she makes for good viewing, with her forthright views, machine gun delivery and a willingness to share the latest family row live with the nation.

There have been many of those. In the last week, Yulia has accused Viktoria of trying to take hold of her flat. (Viktoria says she tried to get the key, but only to make sure no one else gained entry). Viktoria has accused Yulia of ignoring her grandmother for years. (Grandmother Skripal knows very little about the poisoning, and is kept away from the television.)

And then there have been the stark political differences.

Viktoria says the British are manipulating her relatives, carefully doctoring their public statements. She refuses to countenance that the Kremlin had anything to do with the initial nerve agent attack.

Yulia has asked her cousin to leave her and her father alone, with a suggestion that Viktoria was being told what to do by the Kremlin.

This is a charge Viktoria categorically denies – “I don’t know Putin and have never voted for him. I’m a Communist through and through.”

Ms Skripal says she entertained many theories about what actually happened in March in Salisbury. But the most “convincing” one was that her uncle was the victim of a global power play involving US President Donald Trump, Theresa May and Russia.

“It’s very convenient to America. He has separated Russia from Europe and now has Putin all to himself,” she says

Russia was certainly capable of killing traitors – “every government thinks about how to punish its enemies” – but her uncle’s case was "different."

For a start, she refuses to accept Mr Skripal was even a double agent. His 2006 imprisonment for leaking a list of Russian agents to the British was, instead, an elaborate “conspiracy”.

Conspiracy was a word that popped up several times in the course of the interview.

Second, Mr Skripal was “of no use to business or the state”. He was not “selling secrets” like Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy poisoned and killed in London in 2006. Yes, she “could imagine” a man like Andrei Lugovoi travelling to kill his former colleague in London. But she could not see a similar logic in her uncle’s case.

In launching a career in politics on the back of the scandal, many have pointed to an obvious parallel with Mr Lugovoi's recent career. The man who "surely" killed the former agent with radioactive polonium (the words of Sir Robert Owen, chair of the public enquiry into Litvinenko’s assassination) went on to become a deputy in the lower house.

People will think what they think. They will say I speak inelegant. They will call me a swine. They will call me stupid, thick and shortsighted. I’m under no illusions

Viktoria Skripal

Ms Skripal says she is not flustered by such comparisons and had been thinking about a political career for many years. She is standing for election as a regional deputy in the Yaroslavl parliament for A Just Russia party in September, officially an opposition party but not far removed from the ruling party line.

“People will think what they think. They will say I speak inelegant. They will call me a swine. They will call me stupid, thick and shortsighted. I’m under no illusions.”

The hopeful politician says she will focus her campaign on the things that matter – building new schools and a children’s medical centre.

“The local school is working on two shifts, and you have to wait for three hours to get an appointment with the doctors. This isn’t on, and I’m damn sure I’m going to change it.”

Few who have met the feisty Ms Skripal would bet against her doing that.