Poison hitman a Russian colonel
One of the trained assassins wanted for poisoning Sergei Skripal is a decorated colonel in Russian military intelligence who was given the country’s highest award by Vladimir Putin.
The real identity of the man named by British counterterrorism police as Ruslan Boshirov can be revealed as Colonel Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga, pictured. The 39-yearold, 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 investigative journalism organisation Bellingcat and The Daily Telegraph, exposes as lies Putin’s claims that Skripal’s would-be killers were innocent civilians.
Chepiga, posing as Boshirov, and a second agent identified as Alexander Petrov, have insisted they were on holiday in Salisbury and had no connection with the attack on former spy Skripal and his daughter Yulia, using weapons-grade Novichok nerve agent.
The true identity of Petrov remains unclear, but The Daily Telegraph has established that he was travelling under his real first name, having only changed his surname to an alias. Counterterrorism police and security services are understood to know his real name.
A former senior Russian military officer said Chepiga’s high rank in the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, and experience strongly suggested ‘‘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. A Tory minister said: ‘‘This is further embarrassment for Putin and Russia. This is the latest in a series of cock-ups by the GRU. It will have the opposite effect he will have wanted. It shows an inept capability that has been exposed. There is no doubt that the Salisbury poisoning was part of a wider plan of Putin reaffirming Russia as a superpower and letting people know what Russia is capable of.
‘‘This was a message to the West and his own people – cross me and there are consequences.
‘‘He has learnt that he simply won’t get away with it.’’
The disclosure comes as 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 Salisbury woman inadvertently poisoned by a discarded Novichok bottle, and the attempted murder of Skripal, 67, and Yulia Skripal, 33.
Both men – under the aliases Boshirov and Petrov – have been charged with the poisoning of the Skripals by the Crown Prosecution Service.
After Scotland Yard released its evidence – including CCTV showing the men close to Col Skripal’s home on the day he was poisoned – the pair appeared on Russian 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.
May had publicly accused them of being members of the GRU.
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 him.
The medals are normally awarded by the Russian president personally. – Telegraph Group