NOVICHOK DUO WANTED OVER CZECH BLAST
Russians in Skripal poisonings linked to attack on arms dump
THE two Russian agents suspected of the Salisbury poisonings in England have been linked to a deadly explosion at a Czech arms depot four years earlier.
Czech police are hunting Alexander Petrov, 41, and Ruslan Boshirov, 43, who they say were in the country at the time of the 2014 blast that killed two people.
British foreign secretary Dominic Raab said yesterday the UK supported ‘our Czech allies’ after authorities released photos of the suspects, whose Russian passports match the names of the suspects in the Salisbury novichok attack on March 4, 2018.
The pair, thought to be Russian military intelligence officers, are accused of travelling to the UK under the same aliases to carry out the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal.
The 69-year-old and his daughter Yulia, 37, were left fighting for their lives after they collapsed on a bench in Salisbury having been exposed to the nerve agent on their front door.
They survived, although they and a police officer needed prolonged hospital care. Months later, local woman Dawn Sturgess, 44, died and a man was left seriously ill after handling a discarded scent bottle the agents had used to carry the liquid novichok. Ms Sturgess had sprayed the contents
‘Dangerous and malign operations’
on her wrist believing it was perfume.
Mr Raab said: ‘The UK stands in full support of our Czech allies, who have exposed the lengths that the Russian intelligence services will go to in their attempts to conduct dangerous and malign operations in Europe. This shows a pattern of behaviour by Moscow, following the attack in Salisbury.
‘We are as determined as ever to bring those responsible for the attack in Salisbury to justice, and commend the actions of the Czech authorities to do the same. Russia must desist from these actions, which violate the most basic international norms.’
On Saturday the Czech Republic revealed it had expelled 18 Russian diplomats in retaliation.
Czech prime minister Andrej Babis linked the blast to Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU. The country has informed Nato and will discuss the matter at an EU foreign ministers’ meeting today.
Acting foreign minister Jan Hamacek said: ‘There is a reasonable suspicion that secret agents of the GRU were involved in the 2014 explosions at an ammunition dump in the village of Vrbitice.’
The attack has also been linked to the poisoning of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev in 2015.
The agents are said to have been in the Czech Republic between October 11 and October 16, 2014.
As well as the aliases Petrov and Boshirov, they had Moldovan and Tajikistan passports in the names of Nicolai Popa and Ruslan Tabarov. Petrov’s real name is Dr Alexander Mishkin, a medic employed by the GRU. He reportedly graduated from a military medical academy and trained as a doctor for the navy. Until September 2014, his registered home address was GRU headquarters.
Boshirov’s identity was also revealed after the Salisbury attack as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga.
Vladimir Putin is said to have made him a Hero of the Russian Federation in 2014. Following the Salisbury poisonings, the suspects claimed they were sports nutritionists who visited to see the cathedral’s spire. They refused to say why they booked into a London hotel 205km away or why it contained traces of novichok.
Russia’s foreign ministry threatened the Czech Republic last night, warning: ‘We will take retaliatory measures that will force the authors of this provocation to fully understand their responsibility for destroying the foundation of normal ties between our countries.’ ÷ JAILED Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, 44, is said to be facing death as his 19-day hunger strike affects his organs, doctors warn.
He has lost 28lb, and cardiologist Yaroslav Ashikhmin said he ‘could die at any moment’. Mr Navalny was jailed for 30 months in February on controversial fraud charges.