[ad_1]
One of the men wanted by British authorities for poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal earlier this year was unmasked as a highly decorated colonel of the Russian army.
The Bellingcat group's investigative group reported Wednesday that Ruslan Boshirov's true identity – one of the men wanted in the attack on nerve agents against Skripal and his daughter, Yulia – is actually Colonel Anatoliy Valdimirovhic Chepiga.
(Left) A passport photo obtained by Bellingcat would be Anatoliy Vladimirovhic Chepiga, the real name of Ruslan Boshirov, one of the men accused of poisoning the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter .
(Bellingcat / AP)
Bellingcat said he obtained excerpts from the passport file of Anatoliy Vladimirovhic Chepiga, whose photo seems to resemble a younger version of the man identified as Rusland Boshirov.
British officials did not comment on the report; However, officials said in the past that they thought Boshirov and his accomplice, Alexander Petrov, would have gone to the UK using fake passports and pseudonyms.
THE HOPE OF THE EX-RUSSIAN SPY SERGEI SKRIPAL: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
The two men – under their pseudonym – were indicted in absentia by the British authorities earlier this month by poisoning the Skripals using the Soviet-made novichok neurotoxic agent.
The Skripals survived the March 4 attack, but another woman, Dawn Sturgess, who was not related to the original incident, died in July after being exposed to the same substance .
The British authorities accused the couple of being undercover agents for Russian military intelligence, the GRU. They both denied the charges and insisted in an interview on Russian television that they were on vacation in Salisbury only during apparent poisoning.
Russia has also denied the allegations and any involvement in the poisoning of Skirpals.
Ruslan Boshirov, on the left, and Alexander Petrov attend their first public appearance in an interview with the Moscow-funded Kremlin-owned TV channel RT.
(AP)
Putin himself said that the Russian authorities knew the identity of the two men but insisted that they were civilians and that there is "nothing criminal" about them.
Moscow has not made any immediate comment on Bellingcat's request.
According to Bellingcat, who conducted the investigation with the Telegraph, Chepiga, 39, is a highly decorated Russian military intelligence officer who served in Chechnya and received in 2014 the highest award from the Russian Federation. in Chepiga by President Vladimir Putin in a ceremony surrounded by secrecy.
A former senior Russian military officer told Bellingcat that Chepiga's high rank and experience strongly suggested that "the work was ordered at the highest level," adding that a smaller assassination attempt would have been led by a lower officer.
Skripal, 66, was a Russian military intelligence agent who became a double agent for Britain. He and his daughter were taken to a secret place for their safety after being released from the hospital.
[ad_2]Source link
