Poisoning suspect honoured by Putin in 2014, UK group says
323 views · Published 14 October 2018 · 3:08 · Indexed 27 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(9 Oct 2018) One of the two suspects in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in England is a military intelligence officer who was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by President Vladimir Putin in 2014, the British investigative group Bellingcat said Tuesday. The group identified the suspect in the March nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter as Alexander Mishkin, a doctor who works for Russia's GRU intelligence agency. British police say two GRU agents travelled under the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Borishov and used a Soviet-made nerve agent to poison the Skripals in the English city of Salisbury. Bellingcat said it relied on documents and other research to conclude Mishkin was the suspect known as Petrov. Last month, it named the other suspect, "Borishov," as GRU Col. Anatoly Chepiga. Their findings were outlined outside parliament Tuesday by Bellingcat reporters Eliot Higgins and Christo Grozev. They were briefly interrupted by an apparently pro-Russian activist shouting at them to produce evidence. Higgins told reporters he was 100 percent confident they had unmasked the true identities of the Skripal suspects. British lawmaker Bob Seely said the GRU had been embarrassed by the disclosures but said the organisation remained a threat to the West. Russia expert Emily Ferris from the Royal United Services Institute think-tank said Russia would likely stick to its line of dismissing the allegations and insisting it's all a smear. Moscow declined to comment on the group's stated findings. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/10e67354f31d30923ae5cba2c1f7fc39
