Yulia Skripal released from hospital whisked away to "secure location"

(April 10)After more than a month in the hospital after being found unconscious and poisoned with her father Sergei on a park bench in Salisbury U.K. on March 4, Yulia Skripal has been released from the hospital.

Everything is kept under wraps

You would think that reporters and the news media would be crying out for permission to interview Yulia. But no one seems to be complaining. Although Yulia says she has been awake for nearly a week, not a single reporter has interviewed her. Russia has asked for a consular visit but it has not been granted. Her cousin Viktoria in Russia requested a visa to see her but was denied.

The only officially allowed statement from Yulia was via the police. The statement said nothing about her experiences except that she was disoriented. The authorities surely must have interviewed her about what happened. Why is nothing of what she said released to the public? No one even asks such questions. Just read all the mainstream "objective accounts".

Christine Blanshard, the medical director of the Salisbury District Hospital said that Sergei would be discharged in due course. Expect the same sort of event when Sergei is discharged, where there are no reporters asking questions of her and no statement about what he said about events. However, no doubt he too has been interviewed by authorities and provided them with his version of events. Yet somehow no one seems to even ask why nothing has been released of what he has said to them.

The phone call of Yulia to cousin Viktoria

I discussed the phone call in a recent Digital Journal article. The woman alleged as Yulia said nothing about what happened. She did say some things that authorities might not like such as that the conditions at present prevented her from asking that the cousin visit if she did get a visa and she suggested that the cousin would not. She also said that her father was recovering and was asleep. This contradicted the official narrative which still had him in grave but stable condition.

The media such as the BBC were very careful to claim the call was unconfirmed. Viktoria, the cousin, claimed she recognized Yulia's voice. Quite soon after the phone call a new update was released on Sergei's condition noting that it had improved and he was recovering. Victoria did not get a visa. Yulia is supposed to not want a consular visit. Very convenient again to ensure that everything that she knows about what happened is not revealed.

Yulia said to be in a secure location

The BBC claims Yulia was taken to a secure location. We are not told who will be able to see or contact her. We are not even told whether she is going to this location voluntarily. This is another obvious device to ensure that she does not release any information that is unauthorized.

Even Blanshard did not say when Yulia was discharged. The BBC said she had left the hospital on Monday night and went to a safe place. Presumably she was released into the hands of authorities who took her to the place. They are not about to let her simply leave on her own to go wherever she wants or talk to whomever she wishes. She could unwrap things. Of course, the official narrative will be that this is all for her safety if anyone asks.

Russian embassy wants proof that Yulia is acting freely

A statement from the Russian Embassy in London said: "We congratulate Yulia Skripal on her recovery. Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will."

The embassy also responded to the report that both Yulia and Sergei could be resettled with new identities. The Embassy said: "Secret resettlement of Mr and Ms Skripal, barred from any contact with their family will be seen as an abduction or at least as their forced isolation."

The offer of new identities is apparently being arranged by US and UK intelligent agencies: "Intelligence officials at MI6 have had discussions with their counterparts in the CIA about resettling the victims of the Salisbury poisoning. “They will be offered new identities,” a senior Whitehall figure said." This is likely to keep any information as to what happened indefinitely under wraps.

According to the BBC, British officials stated that reports that the Skripals would be relocated to the U.S. are inaccurately premature.

The demand for verification and concerns about resettlement make perfect sense. The U.K. authorities could simply allow Yuiia to make a phone call to the Russian Embassy to say she was acting on her own free will. Of course there might be pressure on her to say that but this would make the U.K. look less as if it were forcibly keeping any testimony by her under wraps. However, perhaps there has already been pressure to do this but Yulia refused to do so.

Previously published in Digital Journal