Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Novichok cops hunt five more Russians
One year on, full hit squad revealed
A YEAR to the day after the botched novichok hit in Salisbury, the hunt is still on for at least five more suspects in a quest for justice.
Moscow has refused to hand over alleged hitmen Dr Alexander Mishkin and Colonel Anatoliy
Chepiga – who are in Russian intelligence outfit the GRU and were caught on CCTV.
Since giving TV interviews after the Met Police released their images last September, both men have vanished.
But MI5 and counter-terror police believe they targeted former double-agent Sergei Skripal on March 4 last year as part of an eightstrong death squad. This would have included a surveillance unit, someone to deliver the novichok and someone to follow Sergei’s daughter Yulia as she flew to the UK from Moscow.
A third GRU member believed to be involved was named as Denis Sergeev, who uses the alias Sergey Fedatov.
And it is believed a safe house would also be on standby in case the assassination attempt was compromised. Sources said the probe is “far from over – with more names to come”. A former British military intelligence officer said: “There is little doubt more people were involved in the attempt to kill Sergei Skripal than is already known. “A team must have watched the Skripals before the guys went to his house, to minimise the chance of Sergei returning while they were there. Someone almost certainly followed Yulia on the plane, handing over to a team
here. And the novichok must have been delivered to the two assassins.
“There would have been some form of technical surveillance on the Skripals, in Russia and the UK, to discover their planned movements. Make no mistake, all of these people form an integral part of a plot to murder someone on British soil, so these other suspects are key.”
The Mirror previously revealed it is thought the novichok may have been brought here using a diplomatic bag. A GRU spy attached to the
Russian embassy may have then passed it on.
Salisbury is now officially decontaminated after a major clean-up. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs gave the all clear at the
Skripals’ house in Christie
Miller Road on Friday, along with 11 other sites. Military teams have spent 13,000 hours on the clean-up since Sergei, 67, and Yulia, 34, were found unconscious on a bench last year.
They took 5,000 test samples from Salisbury and nearby Amesbury – where Dawn Sturgess, 44, was fatally poisoned in July – in the 355-day operation.
Defra said: “The completion of cleanup work marks a significant milestone in south Wiltshire’s return to normality following the novichok attack last year.”
Other sites cleared include the bench where the Skripals were found, a Zizzi restaurant they had dined at earlier and the home of Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was exposed to the nerve agent.
All of these people form a plot to murder someone on British soil MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SOURCE ON PROBE