MOSCOW: Moscow has scoffed at a report by a respected investigative group claiming that one of the suspects in the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal was a highly decorated colonel in Russian military intelligence.
Bellingcat, the British based investigative group, said Wednesday that the real name of Ruslan Boshirov is Anatoly Chepiga, a military intelligence colonel decorated with the country’s top award, the Hero of Russia.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the report, saying it was timed to coincide with the address at the UN Security Council of British Prime Minister Theresa May.
“There is no proof — so they are continuing their information campaign whose main task is to divert attention from the main question: WHAT HAPPENED IN SALISBURY?” Zakharova wrote on Facebook late Wednesday.
“The question remains: when will any proof be provided of involvement of anyone in the Salisbury poisoning, as London calls it?“
Speaking on Wednesday, May attacked Moscow over the poisoning Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok, a nerve agent designed in the Soviet era, in March.
“Russia has only sought to obfuscate through desperate fabrication,” she said.
Bellingcat said Chepiga, 39, graduated from the Far-Eastern Military Command Academy in the far eastern city of Blagoveshchensk, one of the country’s top training grounds for marine commandos and special forces.
He fought in Chechnya and possibly Ukraine and was bestowed the Hero of Russia award in 2014 for “conducting a peace-keeping mission,” a likely reference to the Ukraine conflict.
Bellingcat said it was “highly likely” that Russian President Vladimir Putin knows Chepiga because he personally hands out these awards.
Only a handful of such awards are given each year, often posthumously.
Citing a former Russian military officer, Bellingcat said it was very surprising that a highly decorated officer holding the rank of colonel was sent into the field.
It “would imply that ‘the job was ordered at the highest level,’” the group quoted its source as saying.
This month Putin said that the two men suspected by Britain of poisoning the Skripals were “civilians.”
In an eyebrow-raising interview with the Kremlin-backed RT channel, Boshirov and Alexander Petrov said they went to Salisbury as tourists, sparking ridicule in Russia and abroad.
Some observers have speculated the two intelligence agents have been effectively thrown under the bus by their superiors for failing in their mission.
“From hero to zero,” Bellingcat said on Twitter as it released its report.
Moscow dismisses report publishing identity of Skripal suspect
Moscow dismisses report publishing identity of Skripal suspect
- May attacked Moscow over the poisoning Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok
- This month Putin said that the two men suspected by Britain of poisoning the Skripals were “civilians”
Trump says US struck Daesh targets in Nigeria after group targeted Christians
- The US recently designated Nigera a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he’d launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against Daesh forces in Nigeria, after he spent weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against Daesh Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” the president posted on his social media site.
Last month, Trump said he’d ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria following the claims of Christian persecution. The State Department then announced in recent weeks that it would restrict visas for Nigerians and their family members involved in mass killings and violence against Christians in the West African country.
The US recently designated Nigera a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act.
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump wrote in his Christmas night post. He said that US defense officials had “executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
The president added: “our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.”
