The two Russian agents behind the notorious Salisbury Novichok poisonings are ‘spearheading Vladimir Putin’s new campaign of sabotage in Western countries’
The GRU military intelligence operatives are recruiting criminals to stage attacks, says a new report.
Notorious Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin are wanted by police in Britain as key suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2018.
They posed as tourists with the names Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, but were fully fledged GRU undercover agents.
While the Skripals survived, a perfume bottle they discarded containing Novichok killed local woman Dawn Sturgess, which means they are wanted for murder in the UK.
Now leading investigative journalist Christo Grozev has revealed on independent Russian media outlet TV Rain that both agents are recruiting criminals and former special forces operatives to stage clandestine strikes in countries opposing Putin’s war in Ukraine.
‘The ones who poisoned [ex-spy Sergei] Skripal [in Salisbury]…..they are now recruiting [saboteurs], because they can’t travel the world themselves, they are recruiting,’ said Grozev.
‘They are now recruiting criminals from all over the world [to take part in sabotage in the West].’
The two Russian agents behind the notorious Salisbury Novichok poisonings are ‘spearheading Vladimir Putin ‘s new campaign of sabotage in Western countries’, new reports claimÂ
Russian double agent Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal were poisoned by a mystery ‘nerve agent’ in Salisbury in 2018
The British government accused Russia of attempted murder following the poisonings
‘It’s being done from Moscow, from Sevastopol, from St Petersburg.’
An investigation by independent news outlet Agentsvo found Chepiga’s family have now changed their family name to Korulin [or Korulina for females], according to passports issued to them.
The Salisbury suspects are still controlled by military intelligence spymaster General Andrey Averyanov, 60, deputy head of the GRU, who also supervised the attack on the Skripals and set up secret GRU unit 29155 whose officers committed sabotage and murder in Europe.
In particular, the pair have recruited criminal elements from invaded parts of Ukraine.
Such people hold Ukrainian passports and can move more easily around Europe.
‘These are people who previously were not engaged in sabotage, murder, but in theft,’ said Grozev.
They are being retrained to commit terrorist acts in Europe.
CCTV shows former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia happily strolling around Salisbury on March 4, 2018 – utterly unaware they had been poisoned with Novichok
Spies using the names Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov (right) are said to be recruiting criminals and former special forces operatives to stage clandestine strikes in countries opposing Putin’s war in Ukraine
Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after she was exposed to the Russian nerve agent Novichok, which was left in a discarded perfume bottle in 2018
File photo of personnel in hazmat suits waiting for decontaminationafter securing a tent covering a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill due to exposure to the nerve agent Novichok
A bus was set ablaze in the Czech Republic in one case, and a Polish shopping centre was turned into an inferno in another.
There are concerns over parcel bombs at DHL warehouses near Birmingham and in Leipzig.
An investigation is now underway into whether a DHL plane crash in Lithuanian capital Vilnius this week was triggered by an on-board bomb.
One crew member was killed and three were injured.
MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore warned of a ‘staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage’ in Europe.
Chepiga and Petrov have not been seen in public since they were ordered to appear on Russian state TV to say they were ordinary tourists visiting Salisbury, a claim widely seen as nonsense.
They risk arrest by travelling abroad so now are working inside Russia to recruit saboteurs to send abroad.
Previously such tasks might have been undertaken by spies, but the West has cleaned out many of Russia’s networks meaning Moscow is now seeking other recruits for its hybrid war against countries supplying Ukraine with weapons.
