Putin's agents behind Salisbury poisonings 'spearheading attacks against west'

Investigative journalist Christo Grozev claimed that Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin - who are wanted for murder after the Salisbury poisonings - are recruiting saboteurs

Russian agents behind the notorious Salisbury Novichok poisonings are "spearheading Vladimir Putin’s new campaign of sabotage in Western countries", it has been claimed.

A new report has suggested GRU military intelligence operatives Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, who are wanted for carrying out the 2018 nerve agent poisonings of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the Wiltshire town are believed to be recruiting criminals to stage attacks.

The two, who used aliases Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin and posed as tourists to travel to Britain, but were fully fledged GRU undercover agents. While they failed to kill the Skripals, they are wanted for murder after a perfume bottle they discarded containing the Novichok nerve agent killed local woman Dawn Sturgess.

Now leading investigative journalist Christo Grozev has claimed on independent Russian media outlet TV Rain that both operatives are recruiting criminals and former special forces operatives to stage clandestine strikes in countries opposing Putin’s war in Ukraine. Grozev said the two are using criminals as stand-ins as they can no longer travel the world themselves.

He said: "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. Literally Ruslan Boshirov [real name Anatoliy Chepiga] and his colleague [Alexander] Petrov [real name Alexander Mishkin], they are now recruiting criminals from all over the world [to take part in sabotage in the West]."

"It's being done from Moscow, from Sevastopol, from St Petersburg." Grozev alleged that Chepiga “is engaged in training other spies, both professional special forces and non-professional criminals”. And he claimed Mishkin "carried out sabotage [missions] on Ukrainian territory" earlier in the war, but is now "engaged in training and recruitment" for Putin’s dirty tricks attacks in the West.

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 reportedly recruited criminal elements from Russian-occupied Ukraine who hold Ukrainian passports and can move more easily around Europe. Grozev said: “These are people who previously were not engaged in sabotage, murder, but in theft."

UK authorities believe that Chepiga and Mishkin carried out the poisonings on Vladimir Putin's personal orders, with the government's senior official responsible for Russia policy saying they were not the work of a "rogue" Russian intelligence outfit. Jonathan Allen told the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry in London last week that the decision to sanction the attack "would have gone to President Putin."