LONDON, March 30. /TASS/. The British authorities have been ignoring the Russian embassy’s requests for access to Russian citizen Yulia Skripal, who was exposed to a nerve agent in the city of Salisbury, an embassy said on Friday.
"We have many times requested the British authorities to provide us with access to the Russian citizens so that we could learn about their diagnosis and the treatment they are receiving, as well as meet their doctors. All our requests have been rejected. As far as we understand, various British agencies have been working on the Russian citizens’ case but we don’t have any information as to what is going on in the hospital. On March 29, we were assured that Yulia Skripal was improving but they have been ignoring our request for access to her," the embassy said.
The embassy added that "Sergei Skripal’s niece Viktoria Skripal has contacted the embassy to receive information about her family members’ condition." "Unfortunately, we could not give her any information because of the British position," the embassy noted, adding that the British authorities refused to provide access to Sergei Skripal citing his British citizenship.
"We cannot but point to the British authorities’ hypocrisy, as they always demand access to those who hold British passports along with passports of other countries, but deny Russia the right to do the same. We will continue to seek a positive response to our request," the embassy concluded.
Skripal case
On March 4, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and exchanged for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia suffered the effects of a nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union. London expelled 23 Russian diplomats and announced other restrictive measures against Moscow.
Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that a program aimed at developing such a substance had existed neither in the Soviet Union nor in Russia. In retaliation to the UK’s steps, 23 British diplomats were expelled, the British consulate general in the city of St. Petersburg was closed and the British Council had to shut down its operations in Russia. At the same time, Moscow pointed out that further measures could be taken "should there be any more hostile actions against Russia.".