A joint investigation by the open-source Bellingcat investigative team claims a second man identified by British authorities as being involved in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal is also a military intelligence officer.
Earlier, Bellingcat and its Russian-language partner The Insider uncovered that the man who until now has been known as Ruslan Boshirov is actually Anatoly Chepiga, a colonel, was deployed to Chechnya three times and was awarded a “Hero of Russia,” Russia’s highest state award, in 2014.
In a preliminary report published on Monday, Bellingcat identified the second man — widely known as Alexander Petrov — as Alexander Mishkin and said he was a military doctor from a village in Russia's northern Arkhangelsk region.
Bellingcat said it would publish its full investigation into the identity of Mishkin on Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said the two men shown in British surveillance footage near Skripal's home in the English city of Salisbury were civilians and there was nothing criminal about their activity.
