Novichok assassin ‘pictured shaking hands with Putin’
THE military doctor outed as the second suspect in the Salisbury poisonings was pictured shaking Vladimir Putin’s hand as he was given a top state honour, it emerged yesterday.
The grandmother of Alexander Mishkin, an agent of Russia’s military intelligence service, is said to have a treasured photo of the moment her grandson was given the Hero of Russia award in 2014.
But the woman, who is in her 90s, mysteriously vanished from the remote village where she lives four days ago, just as Mishkin’s cover was about to be blown.
She left after an investigative website announced it was about to unveil the true identity of Alexander Petrov, the alias her grandson used in the UK in March. The 39-year-old is one of two men accused by Britain of poisoning former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the military-grade nerve agent novichok. His accomplice, who used the alias Ruslan Boshirov, has been unmasked as GRU agent Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga – who has also received the Hero of Russia award from Putin.
The emergence of a picture showing Putin shaking Mishkin’s hand would be a humiliating blow for the Russian leader, who publicly declared that Boshirov and Petrov were civilians.
Yesterday, Cristo Grozev from the website Bellingcat laid out its findings after a meticulous investigation into Mishkin’s true identity.
Mr Grozev said that during his school years, Mishkin lived with his grandmother in the remote village of Loyga in Archangelsk – about 560 miles from Moscow. It has a population of 1,000 people and severe weather means it is often cut off from the rest of the country.
Mr Grozev said reporters from the Russian website The Insider, which Bellingcat is partnered with, reached the village on Monday.
They found at least seven residents who identified Mishkin. They said he had been given the Hero of Russia award for top-secret work he carried out in Ukraine, either in Crimea or relating to the ousted former president Viktor Yanukovych.
His grandmother had shown several people the treasured picture of Mishkin receiving the Gold Star medal and Russia’s highest military honour from Putin. They said she was protective of the photograph and never let other people touch it.
Mishkin’s grandmother disappeared suddenly four days ago, telling friends she needed to visit her children in another part of the country.
Last month, when the two GRU officers pleaded their innocence, they said they were forced to turn back on their first trip to Salisbury because of heavy ‘slush’. But the region where Mishkin grew up is covered in snow for 11 months of the year. Mr Grozev said: ‘It’s extraordinary that Mishkin said he can’t tolerate snow.’
It came as Russian sources said the GRU spy chief was left physically shaking after a dressingdown from Putin over the botched Salisbury poisoning. They said an enraged Putin tore strips off General Igor Korobov, 62, as the scale of Moscow’s ‘deep incompetence’ over the assassination attempt became clear.
A separate meeting at the Russian defence ministry – responsible for the GRU – heard furious accusations over the ‘morons’ behind operations in Britain, the Netherlands and the US. Those in charge were denounced for their ‘deep incompetence’ and ‘infinite carelessness’.
British intelligence agencies fear Russia is moving troops and missiles into Libya in a bid to fuel a migration crisis in Europe.
Putin is intent on making the war- ravaged North African nation ‘ his new Syria’, spies have warned Theresa May.
Spooks from Britain and the US believe the Kremlin has set up two military bases in the port cities of Benghazi and Tobruk.
They are operating under the cover of a private military company, sources told The Sun.
If Moscow seizes control of the coastline, Putin could turn on a fresh tidal wave of migrants crossing the Med ‘like a tap’, a Whitehall source said.
Former defence secretary Michael Fallon said last night that Russia had ‘no business in the western Mediterranean’.
‘Given Hero of Russia award’