Second poison suspect spy set to be unmasked
THE TRUE identity of the second suspect in the Salisbury nerve agent attack is to be revealed in the Houses of Parliament next week.
The Bellingcat investigative website is set to name the Russian GRU military intelligence officer at a meeting on Tuesday in a Commons committee room hosted by Tory MP Bob Seely.
The two suspects in the attempted poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal were originally named by the Government as Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov – although it was made clear that the names were aliases.
Last month Bellingcat, working with the Russian website The Insider, identified Boshirov as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga – a highly-decorated officer in the GRU.
Mr Seeley tweeted a link to an advertisement for the meeting, entitled “Announcement of the identity of the second Skripal suspect”, adding the comment “looks interesting”.
The disclosure of the “Petrov’s” true identity is likely to come as a further embarrassment for the GRU following disclosure of its failed attempt to hack the computers of the global chemical weapons watchdog.
The British and Dutch authorities disclosed on Thursday how a four-man GRU “close access” team was sent back to Moscow after it tried to target the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague.
At the time of the operation in April, OPCW scientists were working to identify the deadly Novichok nerve agent used in the attack on Mr Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, the previous month.
The spy agency was widely ridiculed after it emerged the operatives had left behind them a trail of clues as to who they really were as well as details of other GRU operations in which they had been involved.
The GRU had already faced mockery over the appearance on Russian television of “Boshirov”and “Petrov” claiming they had been innocent tourists who wanted to see Salisbury Cathedral for its famous spire.
Meanwhile, Russia has been accused of acting like a “pariah state” by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson after the hacking allegations came to light.
Peter Wilson, the UK ambassador in The Hague, said both the Foreign Office and Defence and Science Technology Laboratory at Porton Down were also targeted by a group of GRU military intelligence service hackers in Russia known as “Sandworm”.
Moscow has called the accusations “another orchestrated act of propaganda” as part of an “antiRussian campaign of spy mania”, according to news agency Tass.
But Gavin Williamson, speaking to Channel 4 News, said the attacks were those of a “pariah state” acting from a position of weakness. These are not the actions of a great power.
“These are the actions of a pariah state and we will continue working with allies to isolate them and make them understand they cannot conduct themselves in such a way.”