“Half of the city calls me a British bitch,” says Viktoria Skripal. “They say Theresa May is now trying to plant spies here in Yaroslavl – but I don’t care.”

Ms Skripal, relative of Sergei and Yulia, could hardly have picked a worse week to begin a run for public office in her home city, 250km (155 miles) north east of Moscow. But the woman with a famous surname is not about to let events – or other people’s opinions – get in the way.

The 45-year-old accountant is, quite simply, relentless. She has her mobile glued to her face. We move from the family Chevrolet to downtown Yaroslavl, then to her flat, a two-bedroomed apartment she shares with 90-year-old Granny Skripal, her husband, and two children.

Critics have accused her of manipulating events in Salisbury for her own political agenda, and also of being in the pocket of the Kremlin.

Viktoria Skripal, at her apartment in Yaroslavl, showing one of her UK visa rejection letters (Oliver Carroll)

Throughout the interview, Ms Skripal is ordering builders and plumbers; arranging meetings with journalists; complaining to friends about the British government; or gossiping about the latest news from Amesbury, where two members of the public have been exposed to novichok – the nerve agent used in the attempted assassination of Sergei and Yulia in March.

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Thursday again reiterated the government's belief that the Kremlin was responsible for that attack, calling it a "barbaric and inhumane" attack by the Russians.

She says she does not understand why people are blaming the Kremlin for that incident. There were more obvious explanations, she said. Perhaps it had something to do with Porton Down, the nearby secret military research facility – “they’ve had enough experimenting on animals.” Perhaps a maniac was going around town, “spraying some dodgy substance” into people’s faces. Perhaps it was a run-of-the-mill domestic dispute, she said.

We all studied chemistry at school, we watched the films. We know a military grade substance when we see it Viktoria Skripal

What was not at play was a military grade nerve agent, she insisted: “We all studied chemistry at school, we watched the films. We know a military grade substance when we see it.”

The latest news from England brought back bad memories. Of the moment she turned on the television and found that her uncle had been poisoned. When she realised the unidentified woman fighting for her life was her cousin Yulia.

“I remember calling her, and we had this agreement to always answer – regardless. She didn’t answer once, twice, three times. That’s when I knew.”

Amesbury couple were exposed to nerve agent novichok

What followed was difficult. For weeks, journalists camped outside her modest home in the sleepy suburbs of working-class Yaroslavl. Her family were unable to leave the flat. She tried to travel to Britain to see the relatives but hit a brick wall of bureaucracy. She was refused a visa twice – told her travelling was not consistent with the interests of Britain or her relatives.

She was hardly on good terms with that side of the family, she admits. She never got on with her cousin. Yulia, who spent much of her childhood in Europe – first Malta, then Spain – was distant. When Yulia returned to Russia she “looked down” on her “plump, simple cousin from the provinces”.

Sergei Skripal tried on various occasions to smooth relations between the cousins, but to no success.

The conflict is now played out every couple of weeks on national TV. Since mid-March, Viktoria has become a star of Russian state TV. And she makes for good viewing, with her forthright views, machine gun delivery and a willingness to share the latest family row live with the nation.

Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Show all 40 1 /40 Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Forensic investigators, wearing protective suits, emerge with bagged evidence from the rear of John Baker House in Salisbury, after it was confirmed that two people living in Amesbury had been poisoned with the nerve-agent Novichok. Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Dawn Sturgess, a mother-of-three from Durrington, died after being exposed to novichok Facebook Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok British police are scouring sections of Salisbury and Amesbury in southwest England, searching for a container feared to be contaminated with traces of the deadly nerve agent Novichok. Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Officers hope that Charlie Rowley, whose partner Dawn died in hospital, can help them establish how the couple came to be contaminated AFP Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok An investigator in a chemical suit works behind screens erected in Rollestone Street PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Fire and Rescue Service personel arrive with safety equipment at the site of a housing estate on Muggleton Road, after it was confirmed that two people had been poisoned with the nerve-agent novichok, in Amesbury Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Forensic investigators at John Baker House Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police and military personnel seized a car from a quiet residential street in Swindon as part of their ongoing investigations into the nerve agent incident in Salisbury and Amesbury SWNS Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Emergency workers in military protective suits search the fenced off John Baker House AP Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok A forensic investigator, wearing a protective suit, emerges from the rear of John Baker House, after it was confirmed that two people had been poisoned with the nerve-agent Novichok, in Amesbury, Britain, July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls HENRY NICHOLLS Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Forensic investigators at John Baker House Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Emergency services arrive at John Baker House EPA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Dorset Fire and Rescue Service at the house PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Tents set up by search teams are seen at the end of Rollestone Street, outside the John Baker House for homeless people in Salisbury. British police are scouring sections of Salisbury and Amesbury in southwest England, searching for a container feared to be contaminated with traces of the deadly nerve agent Novichok. AP Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Dorset Fire and Rescue Service at the house in Muggleton Road PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Fire and Rescue Service safety equipment Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police activity at the house in Muggleton Road PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Emergency services arrive at John Baker House EPA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Fire and Rescue Service safety equipment PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police tents are erected outside a residential address in Amesbury, southern England, on July 6, 2018 where police reported a man and woman were found unconscious in circumstances that sparked a major incident after contact with what was later identified as the nerve agent Novichok. Police on July 6, 2018, raced to find the object that contaminated a British couple with the Soviet-made Novichok nerve agent in southwestern England where a former Russian spy was poisoned with the same toxin four months ago. / AFP PHOTO / Chris J RatcliffeCHRIS J RATCLIFFE/AFP/Getty Images CHRIS J RATCLIFFE AFP/Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Emergency services arrive at the house in Muggleton Road in Amesbury PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Members of the emergency services at the house in Muggleton Road PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Gas masks AFP/Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Forensic tents outside John Baker House on Rolleston Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, where counter-terrorism police are investigating after a couple were left in a critical condition when they were exposed to the nerve agent Novichok. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday July 6, 2018. Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charlie Rowley, 45, were taken ill on Saturday in Amesbury, around eight miles from where former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned with the same substance in Salisbury in March. See PA story POLICE Amesbury. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire Sam Blewett PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Fire and Rescue Service personel prepare safety equipment Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police investigators arrive at the site of a housing estate on Muggleton Road Reuters Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok A police officer stands guard behind the housing estate REUTERS Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police on the scene Getty Images Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok The couple remain in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital AFP/Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok In March Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were poisoned with the Russian-made Novichok in the town of Salisbury. British Prime Minister Theresa May has accused Russia of being behind the attack on the former spy and his daughter, expelling 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation Getty Images Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok British police are cordoning off places the people are known to have visited before falling ill EPA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok British police officers stand outside a residential property in Amesbury AP Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Deputy Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police Paul Mills makes a statement to the press outside The Bowman Centre after Wiltshire Police declared the situation a major incident Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Amesbury Baptist Centre PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Amesbury resident Sam Hobson, speaks to assembled press outside Amesbury Baptist Centre claiming to be a friend of the man and woman exposed to an unknown substance Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok The pair were found unconscious at an address in Muggleton Road, Amesbury Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police cordon at Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury. The town is around 10 miles from Salisbury where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in a suspected nerve agent attack PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Deputy Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police Paul Mills makes a statement Getty Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Police officers stand outside Boots pharmacy, near to the Barcroft Medical Centre in Amesbury PA Amesbury major incident after couple exposed to novichok Amesbury Baptist Centre PA

There have been many of those. In the last week, Yulia has accused Viktoria of trying to take hold of her flat. (Viktoria says she tried to get the key, but only to make sure no one else gained entry). Viktoria has accused Yulia of ignoring her grandmother for years. (Grandmother Skripal knows very little about the poisoning, and is kept away from the television.)

And then there have been the stark political differences.

Viktoria says the British are manipulating her relatives, carefully doctoring their public statements. She refuses to countenance that the Kremlin had anything to do with the initial nerve agent attack.

Yulia has asked her cousin to leave her and her father alone, with a suggestion that Viktoria was being told what to do by the Kremlin.

This is a charge Viktoria categorically denies – “I don’t know Putin and have never voted for him. I’m a Communist through and through.”

Ms Skripal says she entertained many theories about what actually happened in March in Salisbury. But the most “convincing” one was that her uncle was the victim of a global power play involving US President Donald Trump, Theresa May and Russia.

“It’s very convenient to America. He has separated Russia from Europe and now has Putin all to himself,” she says

Russia was certainly capable of killing traitors – “every government thinks about how to punish its enemies” – but her uncle’s case was "different."

For a start, she refuses to accept Mr Skripal was even a double agent. His 2006 imprisonment for leaking a list of Russian agents to the British was, instead, an elaborate “conspiracy”.

Conspiracy was a word that popped up several times in the course of the interview.

Second, Mr Skripal was “of no use to business or the state”. He was not “selling secrets” like Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy poisoned and killed in London in 2006. Yes, she “could imagine” a man like Andrei Lugovoi travelling to kill his former colleague in London. But she could not see a similar logic in her uncle’s case.

In launching a career in politics on the back of the scandal, many have pointed to an obvious parallel with Mr Lugovoi's recent career. The man who "surely" killed the former agent with radioactive polonium (the words of Sir Robert Owen, chair of the public enquiry into Litvinenko’s assassination) went on to become a deputy in the lower house.

People will think what they think. They will say I speak inelegant. They will call me a swine. They will call me stupid, thick and shortsighted. I’m under no illusions Viktoria Skripal

Ms Skripal says she is not flustered by such comparisons and had been thinking about a political career for many years. She is standing for election as a regional deputy in the Yaroslavl parliament for A Just Russia party in September, officially an opposition party but not far removed from the ruling party line.

“People will think what they think. They will say I speak inelegant. They will call me a swine. They will call me stupid, thick and shortsighted. I’m under no illusions.”

The hopeful politician says she will focus her campaign on the things that matter – building new schools and a children’s medical centre.

“The local school is working on two shifts, and you have to wait for three hours to get an appointment with the doctors. This isn’t on, and I’m damn sure I’m going to change it.”