The Russian TV broadcast of a conversation between a recovering Yulia Skripal and her cousin Viktoria, followed soon after by the first UK government sanctioned statement from Yulia on her improving health, injects a highly unpredictable personal element into the staged trench warfare between two nation states.

Both Russia and the UK, operating to tight scripts, are fighting to retain their global reputation, but both countries may find themselves highly dependent on the members of the Skripal family, their relationship, what they know and what they are prepared to say about what they know. With so much at stake, neither woman can at this stage be regarded as a free agent, but may instead be being used as a pawn in a political battle. But that could change, to unpredictable effect.

Yulia Skripal says she is recovering but disoriented Read more

Yulia, daughter of Sergei Skripal, the Russian double agent, is still in Salisbury hospital under UK government supervision.

Yulia woke from a lengthy coma to find her father seriously ill, and both of them at the centre of a geopolitical storm. Disorientated – her own description of her state of mind – must be the least of it as she comes to realise the enormity of the events around her.

The statement released in her name on Thursday seeking privacy was clearly drafted by the UK government. The British aim, apart from securing her personal recovery, is to find out all she knows about possible motives for the poisoning attack and to keep her away from the Russians, and possibly even her cousin.

By contrast, Moscow-based Viktoria, who has so far been freely available to both western and Russian media, has insisted on her neutrality between the Russian and British state. But increasingly she appears to have accepted the Russian government line. She has insisted her cousin could not have been attacked by a nerve agent, suggesting instead Sergei and Yulia have suffered fish poisoning.

At the very least the Russians seem to be using Viktoria as a battering ram with which to try to gain access to Yulia, and to present Russia as the victim of a faceless UK state.

The Russian ambassador to the UK at his marathon press conference in the Russian embassy repeatedly complained he was not being granted consular access to Yulia or Sergei, pointing out that both were Russian citizens, the victims of “a tragic accident” and that their welfare was a legitimate legal concern of the Russian state.

He also highlighted Viktoria’s humanitarian right to see her cousin, saying he was willing to meet her if she was allowed to come to London. He said his goal was to offer her “everything she needed”, including help with her transport costs, accommodation needs and necessary translation services. The British embassy, he stressed, should help in granting her a visa to come to the UK as early as Monday.

In a possible sign that at the least the Russian state is monitoring Viktoria very closely, a brief phone call between her and Yulia made on 4 April was recorded. Viktoria then appeared on two Russian TV channels at which the recordings were played. The existence of the recordings is all the more remarkable since the transcript of the conversation shows Viktoria expressing surprise at Yulia’s call. Despite that surprise, she recorded the call, or someone else did.

However the conversation does not follow entirely the pattern of what the Russian government would like Yulia to say – when Viktoria asks if she can come and see her she appears to reply “no”.

The UK has not confirmed the call took place, but at the very least British ministers are now extremely wary of where the family story may go next next.

