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Relatives of poisoned Yulia Skripal have voiced fears she is being held in “detention” in Britain, and barred from saying what she really feels.

The 33-year-old daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal has spoken to family members as she recovers from the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

But relatives say she did not sound like herself, and believe she is not being allowed to speak her mind.

The ex-spy’s cousin Natalia Pestova, 65, spoke out in Siberia after reports that Yulia and her father could be given political asylum or new identities, possibly in America.

Yulia’s mysterious boyfriend - who is not believed to have been in touch with her since the poisoning - is expected to be quizzed by Russian prosecutors.

(Image: AFP)

(Image: Valeria Sukhova/east2west news)

And as the diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow deepens, Russia accused Britain of benefitting from a £6 billion-plus cash windfall from “criminal” Russians who the government refuses to extradite.

Britain will this week face a new visa application from Skripal niece Viktoria, 45, who has appealed directly to Theresa May to overturn her visa rejection so she can visit her relatives in Salisbury.

Yulia, 33, phoned Viktoria last week and predicted her cousin’s visa would be rejected.

But another family member, who grew up with the spy, said she suspects from the phone call that Yulia is not allowed to speak her own mind, and was told what to say.

“We are very confused by what Yulia said - she didn't quite sound like her usual self,” said Natalia.

(Image: east2west news)

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“Naturally we understand she can't be her usual self after the poisoning and the shock of what happened to her.

“And yet the feeling from hearing her voice was that she wasn’t speaking at her own initiative. I wonder if she is in fact in some kind of detention (in Britain).”

In the call, Yulia told Viktoria she hoped to be out of hospital “soon”.

But it has since emerged that she does not want Viktoria to visit her, even though the pair were close in Russia.

“It's so hard not to be able to talk to her, or see her, to make own judgement,” said Natalia.

“There is too much space for rumours left with no proper stream of reliable information. It's incredibly hard to understand who is lying and why, who is playing double game, and who is telling the truth.”

(Image: Valeria Sukhova/east2west news)

Britain has accused Russia of being behind the use of chemical weapons on the pair in Salisbury.

Sergei Skripal’s maternal aunt Maria hit out at claims from British consular officials that Viktoria was not seen as close enough to the ex-spy and his daughter to be granted a visa.

“I cannot imagine a reason that would make Yulia say she didn't want to see Viktoria,” said the pensioner from Barnaul.

“They were always close. They saw each other in Yaroslavl when Yulia came for for visits.

“They were relatives - and friends."

She said: “We are at a total loss trying to understand what happened.”

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Viktoria said: “I fear Yulia will now be pushed to disown us and get political asylum – and we will never be able to see her and Sergei again.”

Referring to her surprise phone call last week with Yulia she said: “I felt she sounded clearly like she was saying something she was asked to.

“At the end of our chat she fought back tears because she knew that likely she won’t see me again.

“But if she cried by the end of the chat when she said that I won't be given a visa, that means that she DID want to see me.

“If somebody bursts into tears when talking to a family member, then everyone understands that a person wants to see me, the whole world understands it."

Viktoria is to make a new visa application this week, she said.

“I feel that our rights are being ignored, violated,” she said. “I am not asking for anything great.

“The only thing I want is that Yulia can come back home, because this is where her home is.”

She said she would seek to see her relatives without the involvement of the Russian embassy in London if this “unnerved” the British.

Yulia had lived and worked in Britain after her father went to Britain in an exchange with glamour spy Anna Chapman in 2010.

But then she went back to Russia and felt her life was there in her homeland.

Yulia’s mysterious fiancé - alleged to have links to Russian secret services - has been unmasked as Stepan Vikeev, 30.

He is to undergo interrogation by the Moscow authorities amid claims from Viktoria Skripal that the attack on her relatives in Salisbury may have been a “domestic” dispute over Yulia's intended marriage.

The theory will be seen in Britain as a smokescreen convenient for the Kremlin.

Vikeev - who lived with Yulia for two years before she took her flight to Britain in early March - made no effort to contact her or the hospital in the wake of her poisoning, it has been alleged.

Nor has he spoken about her plight.

He wiped all his social media, and only one picture has been found of him - taken from a traffic camera.

(Image: AFP)

Acquaintances say that after the poisoning he “went into hiding”.

One account said: “No-one saw him and he stopped communicating.

“He did not answer calls and text messages.”

His mother Tatiana Vikeeva, 61, is also seen as having links to a branch of the Russian secret services - has also not commented despite specific claims from Viktoria - Sergei Skripal’s niece - that she did not want her son to wed the “daughter of a traitor”.

She heads the highly secretive Research and Production Association 'Institute of Modern Security Problems’, where is it believed Stepan also worked.

The outfit is said to have links to the security services, although there are no details.

(Image: Getty) (Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror)

It was founded by Norilsk Nickel which is part owned by oligarch Oleg Deripaska sanctioned last week by the US.

Viktoria has called Vikeev a “strange man”, expressing surprise that he did nothing to contact her or speak about her poisoning, even when it appeared she would not survive.

Yulia had been aiming to tell her father on her UK trip that the pair were to wed, it was reported.

Viktoria has been interviewed by the Russian Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - which probes serious crimes and is carrying out its own investigation into the Skripal poisoning.

“Investigators got interested in my ‘domestic’ version of events,” she said, referring to her claim that she believes the poisoning was an attack on Yulia to prevent her marriage.

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“They have established the identity and traced Yulia’s ‘lost’ boyfriend of Yulia and will be interrogating him.”

Viktoria has said earlier of Yulia's boyfriend: "She was with a young man but she had strained relations with his mother, at least this was how she told us.

“The mother didn’t accept her, she didn’t understand. The mother thought that if Yulia was the daughter of the traitor, then Yulia herself will betray.

“This was the mother’s prime argument against Yulia.”

She described the mother as “high ranked” with links to Russian security services.

“I don’t know where exactly. I don’t know where she is from and where she lives.”

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Yulia's boyfriend problems were confirmed by a woman who bought the former Skripal family flat on a bleak Moscow estate.

“Yulia had issues in her love life,” she said. “She complained about her on-off boyfriend and said she struggled to make their relationship work.”

Russia, meanwhile, launched an attack on Britain for harbouring alleged criminals from Moscow - and using their dirty money to boost the economy.

Prosecutor general Yuri Chaika said: "Since 2002, Russia has submitted requests to the UK authorities for the extradition of 61 people accused of - or convicted of - economic crimes.

“The amount of damage is estimated at over half a trillion roubles [£6 billion].

“This is only the direct damage, while the amount of funds they've transferred abroad is significantly higher.”

Many Russians who fled Vladimir Putin’s Russia will find it hard to explain their wealth under new British rules, he said.

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“It will be very difficult for many of them to do this,” he said, referring to the new Criminal Finances Act.

“And we very much hope that this law will be applied by the British authorities in accordance with the norms of a civilised state, and not the principle of ‘rob what was robbed’.

“I mean, they have stolen from Russia and now the UK will take everything into its budget.

“You can keep the criminals, but return the money (to Russia). This is our money,”

Russia is planning to make correspondence public this week in relation to certain cases of its wealthy citizens who fled Moscow for Britain.

Moscow’s ambassador in London, Alexander Yakovenko, has alleged that there are some 43 wanted Russian criminals - “some of them serial killers - who have a residence permit and whom the UK has refused to extradite to Russia”.