Investigators ID second Russian poisoning suspect

A British investigative group has identified the second of two Russians accused of poisoning an ex-spy and his daughter in early March. Investigators at Bellingcat said the man known by the alias Alexander Petrov is actually 39-year-old Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin, a military doctor with the Russian GRU military intelligence agency. Britain charged Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with attempting to kill former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England, on March 4 with a nerve agent called Novichok. Bellingcat said the GRU recruited Mishkin during his studies at the Military Medical Academies, where he received training for medical work in the Russian navy. The investigative group said in a statement it had “multiple open sources, testimony from people familiar with the person, as well as copies of personally identifying documents, including a scanned copy of his passport.”

Last month, Bellingcat also identified Boshirov as Col. Anatoliy Chepiga, a decorated colonel in the GRU. Russia has denied responsibility for the attack and claimed the two accused men are civilians. London’s police force has said it will not comment on speculations about the men’s identities.