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Secret Resettlement of Skripals to West Would Be 'Abduction,' Russian Embassy Says

Peter Nicholls / Reuters

The Russian Embassy in London said it would consider any secret resettlement of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the former Russian double agent and his daughter who were poisoned last month, as an abduction of its citizens.

Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency is reportedly in discussions with their counterparts in the CIA about resettling the victims to the United States with new identities, The Sunday Times reported. “They’re less likely to be killed there and it’s easier to protect them there under a new identity,” the paper cited an intelligence source familiar with the negotiations as saying.

If the pair were secretly resettled, the opportunity to hear their version of events would be lost, the Russian embassy said on Tuesday.

"The world, while having no opportunity to interact with them, will have every reason to see this as an abduction of the two Russian nationals or at least as their isolation," the website said.

Yulia Skripal was discharged from hospital earlier on Tuesday more than a month after she was poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent together with her father.

After her discharge, the Russian embassy posted a tweet asking for “urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.”

Reuters contributed reporting to this article.

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