Skripal ‘hitmen’ linked to plot to assassinate Montenegrin leader
THE Russian hitmen who poisoned Sergei Skripal have been linked to the plot to assassinate the prime minister on Montenegro.
The cover passports of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were issued in the same batch as the passport of Col Eduard Shishmakov, the GRU officer accused of masterminding the failed coup in October 2016.
The findings suggest the passports were issued by a special authority to a group of military intelligence officers.
Research by the investigative journalist organisations Bellingcat and The Insider showed that Petrov travelled extensively through Western Europe before the Novichok attack on Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia. It is unclear whether he was accompanied by Boshirov, whose data was not obtained.
Almost as soon as he was issued with his passport, Petrov drove to Minsk, in Belarus, before flying to Amsterdam just days after the referendum on Ukraine’s EU accession.
In July 2016, he took a bus into Kazakhstan, claiming he was on his way to Beijing, despite the Chinese capital being more than 3,000 miles away. Fifteen days later, he reappeared in Tel Aviv, to catch a flight back to Moscow.
Two months later, he used the passport to fly to the UK, travelling from Amsterdam to London for less than a week. He then returned to London in February 2018, staying for six days – over the same time period that he poisoned the Skripals exactly a year later. He also made several trips to Amsterdam, France, Switzerland and Geneva.
His final trip was to London on March 3, when the assassination attempt took place. Petrov and Boshirov, who claim to be on a long-planned holiday, booked the flight the night before.
Bellingcat also claimed that the two men had previously been arrested in the Netherlands. Sources told The Daily Telegraph that they had no record of these arrests taking place.
Passport numbers on the pair’s documents differed by just three digits, they held “Top Secret” and “do not provide information” markings, and were issued by an authority normally reserved for officials and intelligence officers.
It has now emerged that there were only 26 intervening passport numbers between Petrov’s document and the passport for Col Shishmakov who, under the alias Eduard Shirokov, was organising the coup in Montenegro before elections in October 2016.
Interpol issued wanted notices for Shishmakov, under his alias Shirokov, after a plot to kill Milo Dukanović, then the prime minister, was foiled hours before it was due to be carried out.
♦ Restaurant chain Prezzo could sue a Russian model and her husband over their claims they were poisoned during a meal in Salisbury. Prezzo sources said legal action was a possibility, depending on the outcome of a police inquiry.
Doubt has been cast on the authenticity of the account provided by Anna Shapiro to The Sun after the pair were deemed medically fit by doctors. Police sources said one line of inquiry was that the scare was a hoax.