Russian paper: Villagers ID suspect in U.K. poisoning case

MOSCOW — Residents in a small Russian village have identified one of the two suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain as a senior intelligence agent, Russia’s respected Kommersant daily said Thursday.

British-based investigative group Bellingcat on Wednesday had named one of the men suspected in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter as Col. Anatoly Chepiga, an agent with the Russian military i ntelligence agency GRU.

The suspect had been named by British authorities as Ruslan Boshirov, and also appeared on Russian TV under that name denying any involvement in the poison attack.

Kommersant interviewed residents of the small village where Chepiga’s family lived, and they confirmed that Chepiga is one of the suspects identified by British authorities.