Russian suspect in UK poisoning is hero to his home village
283 views · Published 16 October 2018 · 4:37 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(11 Oct 2018) As the recipient of Russia's highest award, Alexander Mishkin is the pride of his home village, his photo even decorating a local school. Several residents of this remote hamlet located amid marshlands and deep forests in Russia's northwestern Arkhangelsk region easily recognised him in photos on Wednesday, as one of two men accused by British officials of poisoning a former Russian spy. But to them, he is just a warm-hearted local boy, a "Hero of Russia", who has made a successful career as a military doctor thanks to his hard work and courage. "He studied at school here," said Yuri Poroshin, an amateur painter who lives in Loyga. "His picture even hangs on the wall there because he's a Hero of Russia." Poroshin said he heard that Mishkin received Russia's highest medal for saving the life of his commanding officer during fighting with Islamist rebels in Chechnya. According to British police, two agents of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, travelling under the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, used the Soviet-made nerve agent Novichok to poison former Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in the English city of Salisbury in March. This week, the investigative group Bellingcat identified Petrov as Dr. Alexander Mishkin, a GRU agent who had received Russia's highest award. Previously the group had uncovered the real identity of Boshirov, determining that he is GRU Col. Anatoly Chepiga. Bellingcat, which based its probe on passport information, residents' databases, car registration documents and phone records, determined that the 39-year-old Mishkin grew up in Loyga before moving to St. Petersburg, where he studied medicine at the elite Kirov Military Medical Academy. Some Loyga residents corroborated that account, confirming that Mishkin was trained as a military doctor. They said he continued to visit Loyga, where his 90-year-old grandmother, a respected local general practitioner, still lives. Poroshin's wife, Valentina Poroshina, fondly remembers Mishkin, whom she last spoke to on a train four years ago. "He was a good boy," she said. "He was very polite." Poroshin also immediately recognized Mishkin when shown the photos released by British police. "Yes, that's him. He looks like his dad and grandmother," he said. The Poroshins' granddaughter, Yulia, said that Mishkin was lauded as a role model at her school. "We even have a portfolio on him," the sixth-grader said. Several other villagers also recognized Mishkin but wouldn't talk about him further. However, village manager Svetlana Lukina denied the man in the photos was Mishkin, saying she didn't recognize him. "People are looking for something to entertain themselves with," Lukina said nervously after being shown the pictures by an Associated Press reporter. "They make it all up out of nothing. His family hasn't lived here for a long time. It's all rumours and hearsay." On Wednesday, the village was largely desolate, with only the occasional big-wheeled all-terrain vehicle able to navigate its unpaved dirt roads. A few people, some of them drunk, passed by on its streets covered with wooden planks. "Only those who have nowhere to go are left here," Poroshin said. "Only drinkers and pensioners are left. Good young people are all gone." The gray two-story brick school building was locked on Wednesday, a note announcing a ban on taking photos and videos pinned next to the door. A school employee told an AP reporter through the glass pane to go away. 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/14df3d59fa11122caaa52fdadfca8c81
