MOSCOW — An investigative group in Britain says it has identified one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in the U.K. as a highly-decorated colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.

The group, Bellingcat, said Wednesday that the suspect, whose passport name was Ruslan Boshirov, is in fact Col. Anatoliy Chepiga, who in 2014 was awarded Russia’s highest medal, the Hero of Russia.

But beyond a photo from Chepiga’s 2003 passport file resembling Boshirov, the report didn’t contain further proof that Boshirov and Chepiga are the same person.

Britain has charged Boshirov and another suspect, Alexander Petrov, with trying to kill Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on March 4 with the Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury. Britain has said the attack received approval “at a senior level of the Russian state,” an accusation Moscow has fiercely denied.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the latest claim from Bellingcat, which relies on social media and open sources in its investigations. The group has heavily focused on Russia, exposing its military activities in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere.

Earlier this month, the two Russian men appeared on the state-funded RT channel, saying they were tourists and had nothing to do with the poisoning.


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