19 Jul 2018 19:02

Skripal's niece registered to stand for Yaroslavl regional duma

YAROSLAVL. July 19 (Interfax) - The list of the A Just Russia party's candidates for the Yaroslavl regional legislature, which includes Viktoria Skripal, the niece of the UK-based former Russian military intelligence officer (GRU) Sergei Skripal, has been registered by the regional election commission on Thursday, the commission told Interfax.

"One can say that Viktoria Skripal has been registered as a candidate for the upcoming elections to the regional Duma," the official said.

It was reported that V. Skripal became head of Territorial Group N10 for regional parliamentary elections.

On Thursday the commission also registered the list of candidates from the Liberal Democratic Party, bringing the total to five parties, including United Russia, Communists of Russia, and Yabloko.

The elections are due on September 9.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious in the British town of Salisbury in early March. On March 12, British Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament that the pair had been poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok (A-234) developed in Russia.

Moscow denied these accusations, saying that all of Russia's chemical weapons were destroyed in 2017 under control of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.