Vlad the Impaler's Machinations Fall Apart

Skripal 'Hitman' Unmasked as GRU Colonel 

Awarded Russia's highest military honour by Vladimir Putin

Hayley Dixon, Robert Mendick
Daily Telegraph UK  
NZ Herald

One of the trained assassins wanted for poisoning Sergei Skripal is a decorated colonel in Russian military intelligence given the country's highest award by Vladimir Putin.  The real identity of one of the wanted men in the nerve agent attack - named by counter-terrorism police as Ruslan Boshirov - can be disclosed as Colonel Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga.

The 39-year-old, who has served in wars in Chechnya and Ukraine, was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by decree of the President in 2014 in a ceremony shrouded in secrecy.


This combination photo made available by the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday September 5, 2018, shows Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov, who has been identified as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga.

The disclosure, uncovered by investigative journalist organisation Bellingcat in conjunction with the Telegraph, exposes as lies Mr Putin's claims that the Skripals' would-be killers were innocent "civilians".
  Chepiga, posing as Boshirov, and a second man identified as Alexander Petrov, have insisted they were on holiday in Salisbury and had no connection with the attack, using weapons-grade Novichok nerve agent.

The true identity of his accomplice Alexander Petrov remains unclear, but The Telegraph has established that he was travelling under his real first name and had only changed his surname to an alias.  Counter-terrorism police and the security services are understood to know his real name.

A former senior Russian military officer said Col Chepiga's high rank and experience strongly suggested that "the job was ordered at the highest level".  The source claimed an attempted assassination of less importance would have been carried out by a lower ranking officer.

European arrest warrants and Interpol red notices have been issued for the pair, who are accused of the murder of Dawn Sturgess, a local woman inadvertently poisoned by a discarded Novichok bottle, and the attempted murder of Col Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 33.

Both men - under the aliases Boshirov and Petrov - have been charged with the poisoning of the Skripals by the Crown Prosecution Service.

After Scotland Yard released its evidence - including CCTV showing the men close to Col Skripal's home on the day he was poisoned - the pair appeared on Russia TV, on the order of Mr Putin, to claim that they worked in the fitness industry and their sole reason for visiting the UK was to see the historic sites of "wonderful" Salisbury.

Theresa May had publicly accused them of being members of the GRU. It can now be revealed that Col Chepiga has been fighting in an elite special forces unit - Spetsnaz - under the command of the GRU for 17 years and working undercover for at least nine years.

He has been given more than 20 awards and a Hero of the Russian Federation medal, though, unlike most of the other recipients, there is little public information available about Col Chepiga. The medals are normally awarded by the president personally, and are only given to a handful of people each year.