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One of the two suspects in Salisbury's Novichok intoxication has been identified as a highly decorated officer of the Russian Military Intelligence Service (GRU).
Online survey sites Bellingcat and Insider have identified one of two suspects – formerly Ruslan Boshirov – as Col. Anatoli Chepiga, a Special Forces veteran who received the country's highest award the Russian Federation.
British investigators also believe that one of the two is Chepiga, the Guardian understands.
Chepiga, a veteran of the war in Chechnya, received his state award in December 2014, when Russian officers were active in the Ukraine conflict.
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned with her daughter Yulia during the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, UK in March. Both recovered later but remained out of public view.
A bottle of perfume jetty used to carry the poison caused the death of a woman who came into contact with her, Dawn Sturgess, and injured her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley.
The two suspects – Boshirov and another man named Alexander Petrov – have been charged in the United Kingdom with attempted murder and conspiracy.
If it was confirmed, the report Wednesday would wipe out the claims of Russian President Vladimir Putin that the two men were civilians and had no connection with the intelligence services of the Russian state.
Russian television had introduced the two suspects, naming them Boshirov and Petrov, as tourists who traveled twice to Salisbury because they were determined to see the city's cathedral.
The use of a nerve agent in the UK by Russian agents has resulted in the worst diplomatic repercussions between London and Moscow since the Cold War. The United Kingdom and its allies have expelled more than 100 diplomats in March and the United States is expected to pass tougher sanctions related to the use of a nerve agent by Russia.
Moscow has continued to deny that Boshirov and Petrov are Russian agents, despite British insistence that there is evidence that the two men have links with the state and skepticism in their country about their weird TV interview.
Bellingcat and the Insider had previously uncovered passport files for Petrov bearing the words "top secret" and "do not disclose", as well as a phone number for the Russian Ministry of Defense.
In a description of his investigation, Bellingcat said he found Chepiga by identifying military academies in the far east of Russia, where the two men had probably studied and matched a photo of the suspect to a man in camouflage .
From there, reporters followed Chepiga to two addresses in Khabarovsk and Moscow, and also obtained passport data leaks showing photographs corresponding to Chepiga in Boshirov.
Chepiga, according to the survey, was born on May 5, 1979 in the village of Nikolaevka, in the region of Love, in the east of Russia. He enrolled in a military academy at the age of 18. but does not provide more information about his background.
It is unclear why Chepiga received the state award. One government site simply stated that it had "conducted a peacekeeping mission." Putin has also awarded prizes to other Russian military units operating secretly in Ukraine at the time. Chepiga has kept no account on social networks and there was little mention of him on the internet, according to the report.
The British authorities had previously stated that they thought Boshirov and Petrov were pseudonyms, but did not give the real names of the men. The closed circuit television images published by Scotland Yard showed the two men arriving at Gatwick Airport and repeatedly going to Salisbury the days before the attack.
Elements of the men's story, told in a Russian-language interview with the editor of the state-funded TV station RT, did not seem to sound like that.
While the men said they went to town to see the cathedral, they were captured by CCTV while walking in the opposite direction, near the Skripal house. The day the poison was sprayed on the Skripal door handle, the two men left Salisbury and headed straight for Gatwick Airport. Skripal and her daughter were later found unconscious in the center of Salisbury.
