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Agency claims Salisbury suspect is high ranking Russian military intelligence agent

An investigative journalism website claims to have identified one of the men suspected of carryin...
Newstalk
Newstalk

19.25 26 Sep 2018


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Agency claims Salisbury suspec...

Agency claims Salisbury suspect is high ranking Russian military intelligence agent

Newstalk
Newstalk

19.25 26 Sep 2018


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An investigative journalism website claims to have identified one of the men suspected of carrying out a nerve agent attack in the UK as a Russian military intelligence agent.

UK authorities earlier this month identified the two men they believe to have carried out the attack on former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter - and released the names the travelled to the country under.

British chemical weapons experts and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have both identified the poison used in the attack as novichok - a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union from the 1970s onward.

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However, nether organisation can conclusively say where the batch was made and Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted it could be produced in up to 20 countries.

London has consistently claimed that the Russian Government was behind the attack; however the Kremlin has rejected the claims and accused the UK of  an attempt to “unleash a disgusting anti-Russian hysteria” over the incident.

Russian agent

The UK named one of the men as Ruslan Boshirov – however news organisation Bellingcat today claimed his real name is Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga.

The organisation said he is highly decorated colonel in the GRU military intelligence agency.

They said the 39-year-old is served in Chechnya and the Ukraine and was honoured with Russia’s highest state award - 'Hero of the Russian Federation,' which would have been awarded by decree of the Russian President.

The agency said the discovery “eliminates any remaining doubt that the two suspects in the novichok poisonings were in fact Russian officers operating on a clandestine government mission.”

It said he has received over 20 Russian State honours throughout his career.

Tourists

President Putin has insisted both men identified by the UK were civilians who had entered the UK as tourists.

Both men appeared on Russian State television claiming they had nothing to do with the poisoning and had visited Salisbury to see its ‘famous cathedral,’ which they insisted was “famous not only in Europe but in the whole world.”

The Skripal’s were left in a critical condition after being discovered slumped on a bench in Salisbury on March 4th.

After being treated in hospital for several weeks they were discharged and their current whereabouts are unknown.

UK Police officer Nick Bailey also came into contact with the nerve agent.

Weeks later, UK citizens Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess also came into contact with it in nearby Amesbury.

Ms Sturgess fell critically ill and died.


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