NOVICHOK: 4 MORE RUSSIAN SUSPECTS
Back-up part of 6-strong squad called Cleaners
for the op is thought to have arrived at other airports at around the same time.
An intelligence source said they used the identities of real prisoners in EU jails so that no visas were required.
A source said: “Back-up is needed to keep the Skripals under surveillance. GRU agents Petrov and Boshirov Petrov and Boshirov needed to know they wouldn’t turn up while they were spraying the novichok.”
They were also there in case something went wrong, like a road accident. In such an event, they would pose as concerned passers-by to snatch the nerve agent. Petrov and Boshirov made a number of trips to the UK in the year before the attack to establish a passport trail – so that their journey for the actual hit would not arouse suspicion.
The source said: “The classic cover is rich Russians interested in property.”
By the time Skripal, 66, and Yulia were found on March 4, Petrov and Boshirov were on a train to London Waterloo.
They then went by Tube to Heathrow and got an Aeroflot flight to Moscow.
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