Skripal suspect ‘was made Hero of Russia’ by President Putin

A Russian man accused of the Salisbury poisoning is a military officer who received an honour from Vladimir Putin, an investigative website says.

Following the attempted poisoning in March, UK investigators identified one of the two suspects as Ruslan Boshirov.

President Putin claimed Boshirov was a civilian, and on Russian TV, he himself said he visited Salisbury as a tourist.

But the website Bellingcat says he is actually an intelligence officer by the name of Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga.

He has served in Chechnya and Ukraine was made a “Hero of the Russian Federation” in 2014.

British officials have not commented, but the BBC understands there is no dispute over the identification.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the new claims, saying there was no evidence.

Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal – who sold secrets to MI6 – and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with Novichok on 4 March.

Both Mr Skripal and his daughter survived, but Dawn Sturgess – a local woman not connected to the original attack – died in July after being exposed to the same substance.

It is thought Chepiga travelled to the UK on a false passport, along with another Russian national who used the name Alexander Petrov.

Who is Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga?

The 39-year-old trained at one of Russia’s elite academies and served with a special forces unit under the command of the GRU – Russia’s military intelligence service.

He earned more than 20 military awards for his service.

He is believed to have transferred to Moscow around 2009, where he was given a false identity as Ruslan Boshirov. He has been working undercover for the past nine years.

In December 2014, he was made a Hero of the Russian Federation. The medal, awarded in a secret ceremony, is typically handed out by the Russian president.

It is only given to a handful of people each year. The timing suggests it was for operations in Ukraine.

BBC