Russia’s SAS Spetsnaz sent in on secret foreign missions

The special forces brigade in which Anatoliy Chepiga served carried out secret missions in Ukraine for which he was awarded Russia’s highest honour.

Colonel Chepiga – the Salisbury nerve agent assassin travelling under the false identity of Ruslan Boshirov – had graduated in 2001 from his military academy in far eastern Russia on the Chinese border, 5,000 miles and a five-day train journey from Moscow.

Passing out with honours, he was assigned to the 14th Spetsnaz Brigade, stationed in Khabarovsk, again in the far east of Russia and only 20 miles from the Chinese border.

From there, Col Chepiga served three tours in Chechnya in the brutal second Chechen war. Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces brigades are run by the GRU, Moscow’s military intelligence unit, of which Sergei Skripal, the target in Salisbury, was also a colonel.

Spetsnaz units have a reputation for ruthlessness and are highly regarded by their British equivalents

– the SBS and the SAS. The units are highly trained and well-equipped.

It is not known what role Col Chepiga played in Chechnya but he will have emerged battle-hardened. It is reported he received more than 20 military awards for his service.

In 2009, with the war in Chechnya largely over, Col Chepiga was withdrawn to Moscow. It is the first time that his fake identity, Ruslan Boshirov, has been given to him by his GRU paymasters.

A report on Russian troop movements claimed that the 14th Brigade had been deployed on the eastern border with Ukraine in late 2014, a couple of months before Col Chepiga was given his Hero of the Russian Federation medal.

Units of 14th Brigade were transferred to southern Russia and then moved to Millerovo airport in the Rostov region, close to Ukraine.

The 14th Brigade was formed in 1963 and Col Skripal served with an airborne regiment before being recruited by the GRU.