In spy nets

Poisoned daughter of former Russian spy, Yulia Skripal, had ‘secret bank account’, revealed relative

YULIA Skripal was targeted in the Salisbury nerve agent attack just days after she gained access to a $200,000 “secret bank account”, her family claim.

According to The Sun , the money belonged to the 33-year-old’s brother Alexander, who died in mysterious circumstances in St Petersburg last year.

Alexander died aged 43, reported Huffpost, while on holiday with his girlfriend in St Petersburg. He was said to have been admitted to hospital for liver failure. Relatives deemed the death as “suspicious”.

BBC Russia suggests that Alexander’s death may have been used to determine where his father lived in the UK.

“We can assume that if the Russian secret services were trying to find out exactly where Sergei Skripal lived, the story of the repatriation of his son’s body could help them very much in obtaining this information.”

Yulia was made power of attorney at the end of February — just days before she was poisoned alongside her Russian ex-spy dad Sergei.

The cash came from the sale of the house Alexander owned in the UK with ex-wife Natalia, who is the daughter of a GRU (the Russian foreign military intelligence agency) military intelligence colonel.