National Post (National Edition)
Wanted Salisbury assassin was elite Russian soldier
Rank suggests hit ‘ordered at highest level’
One of the trained assassins wanted for the nerve-agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the English town of Salisbury is a decorated colonel in Russian military intelligence given the country’s highest award by Vladimir Putin.
The real identity of one of the wanted men — named by counter-terrorism police as Ruslan Boshirov — can be disclosed as Col. Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga.
The 39-year-old, who has served in wars in Chechnya and Ukraine, was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by decree of the president in 2014 in a ceremony shrouded in secrecy.
The disclosure, uncovered by online investigative journalist organization Bellingcat in conjunction with The Daily Telegraph, exposes as lies Putin’s claims that the would-be killers of Skripal and his daughter Yulia were innocent “civilians.”
The true identity of his accomplice Alexander Petrov remains unclear, but The Telegraph has established that he was travelling under his real first name and had only changed his surname to an alias.
Counter-terrorism police and the security services are understood to know his real name.
A former senior Russian military officer said Chepiga’s high rank and experience strongly suggested that “the job was ordered at the highest level.”
The source claimed an attempted assassination of less importance would have been carried out by a lower ranking officer.
Boris Johnson, the former British Foreign Secretary, said: “Utterly predictable news that GRU behind Skripal atrocity. What have you got to say, Putin?” GRU is Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency.
The disclosure comes as Prime Minister Theresa May told the UN Security Council that Russia should not “be in any doubt” that if it did not “rejoin the international consensus against the use of chemical weapons” then the UK and its allies would be forced to take action.
European arrest warrants and Interpol red notices have been issued for the two men, who are accused of the murder of Dawn Sturgess, a local woman inadvertently poisoned by a discarded Novichok bottle, and the attempted murder of Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 33.
After police released its evidence — including CCTV showing the men close to Skripal’s home on the day he was poisoned — the pair appeared on Russia TV, on the order of Putin, to claim that they worked in the fitness industry and their sole reason for visiting the UK was to see the historic sites of “wonderful” Salisbury.
It can now be revealed that Chepiga has been fighting in an elite special forces unit — Spetsnaz — under the command of the GRU for 17 years and working undercover for at least nine years.
He has been given more than 20 awards and a Hero of the Russian Federation medal, though, unlike most of the other recipients, there is little public information available about Chepiga. The medals are normally awarded by the president personally, and are only given to a handful of people each year.
The website of the FarEastern Military Command Academy, where Chepiga studied, lists all of their alumni who have received the award with a detailed description of the acts that resulted in the recognition.
In his case it simply says: “Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga was awarded the honourary title of Hero of the Russian Federation by order of the president of the Russian Federation.”
The secretive nature of Col Chepiga’s award, combined with the timing in 2014, suggests that it was for actions in Ukraine.
In 2014 Russia was not engaged in fighting in either Chechnya or Syria and his unit — number 74854 of the 14th Separate Brigade of Special Forces (Spetsnaz) — was pictured on the eastern border of Ukraine that year.
Involvement in Ukraine would explain the secrecy around his award, which is also noted by a veterans’ group. The group writes on its website: “You can become a hero even in our seemingly peaceful times.”
Chepiga had graduated in 2001 from his military academy in far eastern Russia on the Chinese border, 8,000 kilometres and a five-day train journey from Moscow. Passing out with honours, he was assigned to the 14th Spetsnaz Brigade, stationed in Khabarovsk, again in the far east of Russia and 30 kilometres from the Chinese border. From there Chepiga served three tours in Chechnya in the brutal second Chechen war. Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces brigades are run by the GRU, of which Sergei Skripal, the target in Salisbury, was also a colonel.
Spetsnaz units have a reputation for ruthlessness, are highly trained and wellequipped.
Chepiga was born in Nikolayevka, a small village with only 300 residents near Russia’s border with China, in 1979. At the age of 18 he enrolled in the Far-eastern Military Command Academy in Blageoveschensk, less than an hour from his home. The academy is an elite training ground for marine commandos and officers in the Spetsnaz.
At the time he was a student, it was known for training officers involved in overseas clandestine operations.
Experts believe that because of his rank, and the nature of his work, he may have studied at the Military Diplomatic Academy, also known as the “GRU Conservatory.”
UTTERLY PREDICTABLE NEWS ... WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO SAY, PUTIN?