Russian suspect in U.K. poisoning a hero at home

LOYGA, R U SSIA» As the recipient of Russia’s highest award, Alexander Mishkin is the pride of his home village, his photo even decorating a local school.

Several residents of this remote village — amid marshlands and deep forests in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region — easily recognized him in photos Wednesday as one of two men accused by British officials of poisoning a former Russian spy.

But to them he is just a warmhearted local boy, a “Hero of Russia” who has made a successful career as a military doctor thanks to his hard work and courage.

“He studied at school here,” said Yuri Poroshin, an amateur painter who lives in Loyga. “His picture even hangs on the wall there because he’s a Hero of Russia.”

Poroshin said he heard that Mishkin received Russia’s highest medal for saving the life of his commanding officer during fighting with Islamist rebels in Chechnya.

According to British police, two agents of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, traveling under the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, used the Sovietmade nerve agent Novichok to poison former Russian doubleagent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in the English city of Salisbury in March.

This week, the investigative group Bellingcat iden tified Petrov as Dr. Alexander Mishkin, a GRU agent who had received Russia’s highest award.

Previously the group had uncovered the real identity of Boshirov, determining that he is GRU Col. Anatoly Chepiga.

Bellingcat, which based its probe on passport information, residents’ databases, car registration documents and phone records, determined that the 39yearold Mishkin grew up in Loyga before moving to St. Petersburg, where he studied medicine at the elite Kirov Military Medical Academy.

Some Loyga residents corroborated that account, confirming that Mishkin was trained as a military doctor.

They said he continued to visit Loyga, where his 90yearold grandmother, a respected local general practitioner, still lives.

Poroshin’s wife, Valentina Poroshina, fondly remembers Mishkin, whom she last spoke to on a train four years ago.

“He was a good boy,” she said. “He was very polite.”

Poroshin also immediately recognized Mishkin when shown the photos released by British police.

“Yes, that’s him. He looks like his dad and grandmother,” he said.

The Poroshins’ granddaughter, Yulia, said that Mishkin was lauded as a role model at her school.

“We even have a portfolio on him,” the sixthgrader said.

Several other villagers also recognized Mishkin but wouldn’t talk about him further. However, village manager Svetlana Lukina denied the man in the photos was Mishkin, saying she didn’t recognize him.