“The former Russian spy and his daughter started a new life”, - writes The Sunday Times, citing senior government officials in the UK.
It is noted that the move may have taken place last year, as indicated by the fact that Skripal's former neighbor received a greeting card from him for Christmas.
The publication writes that a new place of residence was chosen after assessing all possible risks. Last year, the media considered the likelihood of a new life for father and daughter with new names in another country. The five countries of the Western intelligence community Five Eyes — the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand — were named as possible countries of the Skripals moving.
So, probably, it turned out - Sergey and Julia Skripal began their new life under new names and with new documents in New Zealand - everything is new. As support measures, they were allocated the necessary amount of "lifting".
A week before the news of the Skripals move appeared, the BBC presented a trailer for the new television series Poisoning in Salisbury, the plot of which was based on a real story about the poisoning of former colonel of the Main Intelligence Agency, British agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, the novice drug Novichok.
In spring 2018, Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious in the British city of Salisbury. They were poisoned with a substance that was developed back in the USSR. The incident caused an international scandal. The British intelligence services named the employees of the GRU Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as the performers of the poisoning. The alleged third participant in the operation could be Denis Sergeyev. The injured survived. The Kremlin categorically denied allegations of poisoning. After this scandal, the United States imposed additional sanctions against the Russian Federation.
Skripal was arrested in 2004 and sentenced to 13 years in prison for transferring the names of secret Russian agents for 100 thousand dollars to the British secret service Mi6. However, after six years, he and several other convicts were exchanged for Russian agents exposed in the United States. Skripal took refuge in the UK.