Russia’s authorities, which have no consular access to Yulia Skripal, who was allegedly poisoned with her father in a nerve agent attack in the UK in March, have all grounds not to trust her video address, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
"We have all grounds not to trust this and believe this," Peskov said. "We still don’t know the condition of Yulia Skripal, we don’t know if she made these statements upon her own will or under pressure. We don’t know where she is, in which conditions, with whom, what steps are taken against her, how her rights are ensured and whether she is legally capable," Peskov said.
"That’s why in general, taking into account that this is a rather unprecedented provocation, which London carried out against Russia, we still mistrust this and we have all grounds for that," he stressed.
Yulia Skripal earlier made a video address in which she stated her unwillingness to use the help offered by the Russian Embassy to the UK. Earlier in the day, Peskov noted that the British side is still not adhering to the Vienna Convention and Russia has not received consular access to Yulia Skripal yet.
On March 4, former Russian intelligence officer convicted for spying for the United Kingdom, Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were allegedly poisoned with a nerve agent, according to British investigators. Later, London stated that this agent was designed in Russia and blamed Moscow for being behind the incident based on this assumption. The Russian side refuted all accusations, saying that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia had any programs for developing this agent.
