British journalists identify 2 Russians accused of poisoning ex-spy as Russian military intelligence

When the British government indicted two Russians last month for the near-fatal poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in March, the two men they named as the attackers, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, went on Russian TV to assert they were just tourists who just happened to be in Salisbury the same day as the poisoning. Russian President Vladimir Putin also insisted that Petrov and Boshirov were "civilians" and not agents of Russia's military.

Two weeks ago, the British investigative website Bellingcat identified Boshirov as Anatoliy Chepiga, a high ranking colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, and on Monday evening, Bellingcat said Petrov is really Alexander Mishkin, a Russian doctor employed by GRU. The Skripals were poisoned by the Russian nerve agent Novichok, and while neither of them died, a British woman was later fatally exposed to the nerve agent.

Bellingcat says it "conclusively identified" Mishkin from "multiple open sources, testimony from people familiar with the person, as well as copies of personally identifying documents," including his passport. Unlike Chepiga, awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation award by Putin in 2014, Mishkin appears to have either been less deeply undercover or sloppier — his "cover identity retained most of the biographical characteristics of the authentic Mishkin — such as the exact birth date, first and patronymic name, and first names of his parents," Bellingcat said, and until 2014, his Moscow home address was the same as GRU headquarters.

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"Mishkin's identification will raise more questions about how easy it has been to expose supposedly undercover intelligence officers and undermine Russia's official account that the two men who came to Salisbury were there to see the Cathedral spire," BBC News notes. Recent reports in Russian media suggests that "Putin — himself a former spy chief — is unhappy with the GRU's performance — and that a purge could be on the way."