UNMASKED
Putin’s lies are laid bare after novichok poisoner is exposed as decorated colonel in Russia’s feared military intelligence
RUSSIAN lies over the Salisbury poisonings were exposed last night with the dramatic unmasking of one of the assassins.
Only a few weeks ago, Vladimir Putin went on television to claim that two suspects captured on CCTV were civilians and not GrU military intelligence officers.
But yesterday one of them was revealed to be a special forces colonel whose real name is Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga. He had come to Britain under the alias ruslan Boshirov.
President Putin gave the 39-year-old, who had served in Chechnya and Ukraine, russia’s highest bravery honour in 2014 – under his real name.
Painstaking examination of public military records, leaked resident databases and passport files by online analysts led to his identification.
The Kremlin was branded shameful last night for claiming Chepiga and his unknown accomplice, who used the alias Alexander Petrov, were holidaymakers. Boris Johnson tweeted: ‘Utterly
predictable news that GRU is behind Skripal atrocity.’ The former foreign secretary added: ‘What have you got to say, Putin?’
The two Russian agents were charged over the poisonings by the Crown Prosecution Service earlier this month. But they later appeared on Russian TV to insist they were visiting Salisbury for its cathedral.
As the bungled attack that left one dead and three seriously ill took another twist:
It emerged that Chepiga fought for a feared Spetsnaz unit for 17 years and worked undercover for at least nine;
Sources said the soldier’s high rank – the same as his intended victim, Colonel Sergei Skripal – suggested the attack was sanctioned at the highest level;
Senior politicians queued up to accuse the Russians of being ‘seriously dishonest’ and lying about their complicity.
The identity of Chepiga was uncovered by investigative organisation Bellingcat, best known for its insight into the fighting in Ukraine. It found that Chepiga has won more than 20 awards and a Hero of the Russian Federation medal during his illustrious military career.
Born in the isolated village of Nikolayevka, on the Russian-Chinese border in 1979, he is married with a teenage son.
In 2001 he graduated from the Far-Eastern Military Command Academy before being deployed to Chechnya three times.
Its website states: ‘Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Russian Federation by order of the president of the Russian Federation.’
His name appears under a gold star honour list on a monument to academy alumni at a base near the Chinese border.
The medals are normally awarded by the president personally, and are given only to a handful of people each year.
Unlike most recipients there is little public information about Chepiga’s life and official documents are marked ‘top secret’.
The secretive nature of the award, comgade
bined with its timing in 2014, suggests it was for actions in Ukraine. His Spetsnaz unit was pictured on the eastern Ukraine border.
Investigators also found documents that trace Chepiga’s movements around Russia and Europe. He pops up at a remote military unit and in Moscow where he is likely to have studied at the Military Diplomatic Academy, or ‘GRU Conservatory’. The GRU was betrayed by Mr Skripal before he was jailed and sent to the UK in a spy swap. He and his daughter were poisoned in March in Salisbury.
Chepiga and Petrov are also accused of murdering Dawn Sturgess, who was inadvertently poisoned when she discovered a perfume bottle filled with the deadly novichok nerve agent used on the Skripals. Tom
Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: ‘It is confirmation of what we have known for a long time – that Russia is serially dishonest in its foreign affairs and has again lied about its complicity.
‘These guys are amateurs. Their cover couldn’t even survive investigation by newspapers.’
The Russian embassy in London made no comment.