2nd UK poisoning suspect identified as ‘Russian doctor’
LONDON: Investigative group Bellingcat has identified the second suspect in the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal as a doctor employed by Moscow’s GRU military intelligence service.
The Kremlin has rejected past charges about its involvement in the case as fabrications aimed at discrediting Russia. Yet analysts will read Bellingcat’s latest publication for more clues into the alleged workings of a Russian spy agency at the centre of several international disputes.
“We have now identified ‘Alexander Petrov’ to be in fact Dr. Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin, a trained military doctor in the employ of the GRU,” the British-based group said in a report published on its website on Monday.
Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by a Sovietdesigned chemical agent called Novichok in the English town of Salisbury in March.
Britain accuses the Russian government of trying to kill Skripal in retribution for his ongoing work with European intelligence agencies.
Russia says Britain has no proof.
The Skripal case and last week’s revelations that the GRU also allegedly tried to hack into the world’s chemical weapons watchdog in the Netherlands have further tattered Moscow’s strained ties with the West.
Bellingcat became a thorn in the Kremlin’s side by detailing its alleged crimes during the wars in Syria and Ukraine.
It worked with the Russian investigative team at The Insider to name the first of the two Skripal suspects as GRU agent Anatoly Chepiga last month.
Bellingcat said Chepiga was decorated in 2014 with the nation’s top award in a secret ceremony at the Kremlin.
“While Alexander Mishkin’s true persona has an even sparser digital footprint than Anatoly Chepiga’s, Bellingcat has been able to establish certain key facts from his background,” it wrote.
The group showed an apparent scan of his real national ID card -- called a passport in Russia -- from 2001. Mishkin was identified there as having been born in July 1979 in the northwestern region of Arkhangelsk. Bellingcat said he graduated from one of Russia’s elite Military Medical Academies.