Skripal suspect: Bellingcat identifies Russian doctor Alexander Mishkin as second agent | CNN
CNN
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The Russian agent who a British investigative outlets identifies as a suspect in the nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter has reportedly received a hero’s honor from President Vladimir Putin.
UK website Bellingcat claimed Monday the agent traveling under the name Alexander Petrov is a military doctor named Alexander Mishkin, a 39-year-old working for Russian military intelligence, the GRU.
According to the investigative site, “multiple sources familiar with Mishkin, both in St. Petersburg and in his native Loyga” identified Petrov as Mishkin. CNN has not independently verified Bellingcat’s reporting.
The UK’s Metropolitan Police Service said it would not comment on speculation regarding the true identities of the two men accused of poisoning Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with the nerve agent Novichok in the southern English city of Salisbury in March.
In a statement, the Met reiterated it believes the two suspects used aliases.
Mishkin was born in 1979 in Loyga, Bellingcat said, and graduated from an elite military medical academy, where he was trained as a naval doctor.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the first report “bogus.” CNN has contacted her and Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov for comment.
Salisbury attack suspects Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov. Both have been claimed to be undercover agents of Russian military intelligence.
Met Police
Secret identity
Bellingcat said Mishkin was born in 1979 in the village of Loyga, and graduated from one of Russia’s elite Military Medical Academies, where he was trained as a military doctor for the Russian naval armed forces.
“During his medical studies, Mishkin was recruited by the GRU, and by 2010 had relocated to Moscow, where he received his undercover identity – including a second national ID and travel passport – under the alias Alexander Petrov,” the website said.
It added that Mishkin “traveled extensively under his new identity,” including to the Ukraine and the self-declared Transnistrian Republic in Moldova, which is supported by Moscow.
While it said his current military rank is unknown, the Bellingcat report said it could be “posited that as the time of the Skripals’ poisoning incident he was either a Lt. Colonel or a full Colonel.”
Official mocks blunders by Russian agents
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– Source: CNN
The alleged poisonings caused fallout between Moscow and London, with many UK allies weighing in against the Kremlin.
Bob Seely, a Conservative member of the foreign affairs committee of the UK’s House of Commons, expressed dismay at the suggestion of a doctor’s involvement.
“It’s appalling that a medical doctor appears to have been part of a team of GRU operatives that attempted to deliver a lethal poison to their target – and accidentally killed another person by mistake,” he told CNN. “Whilst this operation has been a botched embarrassment for the Kremlin from beginning to end, it’s worth remembering that we may not know about the GRU’s successful operations and therefore shouldn’t judge the GRU alone by their failures.”
Seely told CNN this latest report shows the UK needs to step up its “long-term plan to understand and exposed Russian subversion.”
Putin dismisses controversy
The alleged poisonings of the Skripals by Russian agents caused significant fallout between Moscow and London, with many allies of the UK also weighing in against the Kremlin.
At an energy forum in Moscow last week, Putin dismissed the furor, calling Skripal a “traitor” and “scumbag.” He said the Salisbury affair was being artificially “blown up” by the media and will soon pass.
“I see that some of your colleagues are pushing the theory that Mr. Skripal is almost a human rights activist,” Putin said to a journalist. “He’s just a spy, a traitor to the motherland.”
Putin said that the Salisbury affair “is being artificially … blown up” by the media, but added: “It’ll pass, eventually … The sooner it’s over, the better.”
