Poisoning suspect honored by Putin, U.K. group says

LONDON — One of the two suspects in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in England is a medical doctor in Russian military intelligence who was honored as a Hero of the Russian Federation by President Vladimir Putin in 2014, a group of British investigators said Tuesday.

British police say two GRU agents traveling under the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Borishov used a Soviet-made nerve agent to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury in March.

Investigative organization Bellingcat said it used documents and other research to identify Petrov as Dr. Alexander Mishkin, a member of Russia’s GRU intelligence agency. Last month, it said that Borishov’s real identity is GRU Col. Anatoly Chepiga.

British authorities don’t dispute the identifications. Moscow, which denies involvement in the poisoning, declined to comment.

Bellingcat is a team of volunteer digital detectives who scour social media and open-source records to investigate crimes.

The group said it identified Mishkin through passport information, residents’ databases, car registration records and phone records, as well as personal testimony from people who know him.

The head of the Insider, Bellingcat’s Russian partner organization, called the GRU “stupid” for allowing its agents to be found so easily.

“The most important thing for Russian media and for Russian bloggers, people who follow the story, is how the GRU could be so stupid?” Roman Dobrokhotov said.

Britain claims the poisoning was authorized at a senior level of the Russian state — a claim Moscow denies. The Skripals’ poisoning ignited a diplomatic confrontation in which hundreds of envoys were expelled by both Russia and Western nations.