Britain poison suspect is Russian intelligence doctor

LONDON: One of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-spy in England is a doctor who works for Russian military intelligence and travelled to Britain under an alias, investigative group Bellingcat reported.

Bellingcat said on its website that the man British authorities identified as Alexander Petrov is actually Alexander Mishkin, a doctor working for the Russian military intelligence unit known as GRU.

British officials said when they charged two Russians last month in the March nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter that they believed Petrov was an assumed name.

The other suspect also travelled to Salisbury, England, under an alias – Ruslan Boshirov – but is a decorated Russian agent named Anatoliy Chepiga, Bellingcat reported last month.

The group said it would provide forensic evidence and other information it used to conclude Petrov was Mishkin soon. There was no immediate comment on the Bellingcat report by either the Russian or British governments.

The poisoning of Skripal, a former Russian agent who was convicted of spying for Britain, became a major international incident. British authorities said the former spy and his daughter, Yulia, were sickened by a Sovietmade nerve agent.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the attack was likely ordered at the highest levels of the Russia government, an allegation vehemently rejected by Russian President Vladimir Putin.