PARIS (AP) — It seems like open season on the GRU.
The Russian military agency had its inner workings exposed again Friday as determined journalists and Kremlin critics remain focused on uncovering its secrets. A new report details the alleged misbehavior and bizarre bureaucratic decisions that allowed a Russian journalist to identify people he says are GRU officers.
Journalist Sergei Kanev said he wants to call attention to problems within an organization he thinks has moved from traditional spying into unchecked violence and foreign interference. But his story portrays the agency as more sloppy than scary: one finding was that suspected GRU agents appeared to blow their own covers.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a popular reference to William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet seems to argue that it does not matter that Romeo is from her family’s rival house of Montague, that is, that he is named “Montague”.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet – Wikipedia
Sayoc, 56, from Aventura, faces up to 58 years in prison
Two more suspicious packages discovered in US on Friday
Per NBC News, Trump not planning to reach out to Obama or others figures targeted in Sayoc’s bomb campaign.
“I think we’ll probably pass,” he said.
NOTABLE: Asked by @KellyO whether President Trump will reach out to former President Obama or others targeted with mail bombs, Trump simply says: “If they wanted me to, but I think we’ll probably pass”
Sayoc’s white van, with all of its elaborate political displays and anti-Democrat sentiment is exactly the type of thing people tend to pull out their smartphone and snap a picture of these days. Expect to see a lot of posts and images like this in the coming hours and days from people who snapped it before this weeks events.
OMG. My husband just called and said “Remember that picture I texted you of that crazy Trump van that delivered lunch to my office? THAT WAS THE GUY!” This is the picture he sent me of the van parked at his office on November 1, 2017. #FloridaMan@FBIpic.twitter.com/18BimNzNhi
“Authorities were also aided by mistakes made by the alleged bomber who left traces of evidence…
Cesar Sayoc Jr., Alleged Mail Bomber, Threatened Democrats on Twitter #articles- fbi #feedly — Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) October 27, 2018 “Authorities were also aided by mistakes made by the…
M.N.: Я боцку не кацу! I love my Dear Sister Nina, and very sincerely (but not sexually), it is the chemistry, she knows that. However, ziz might be a good point in space and time to start the discussion about the corrupting and the manipulative influences of the High Executive Powers on the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis in general. These influences have to be contained within the natural and the appropriate bounds. The great many historical mistakes occurred due to the over-exercise of these powers, the Stalin’s denial of the Germany’s preparations for the plan Barbarossa is one of them. The Analysis has to be absolutely independent and objective, it seems to me; just like a scientific discipline, or medicine (which might be a good comparison). In this particular case, the Chinese threat is undoubtedly present (and probably more in the attempts to corrupt the democratic process by financial infusions and in the industrial espionage than anything else), but the significance of this threat has to be accurately assessed and presented to the public. The major actions still are in the good old European theater. We still relive the past history and the past trauma. The WW2 is not really finished, it seems to me. It will be finished only when the New Abwehr signs the peace treaty. We have to realize this. It is also quite possible, that they attempt to convey this message in their recent operations, and they also sense that the old Canaris-Canalyas-Canals paradigm of the intelligence work is exhausted, and they will be outrun if they do not adjust to the new realities. The Higher Executive Powers have to be enlightened, but they cannot be allowed to bend the strategic visions and plans as they are determined by the collective analysis of the Intelligence Community. This analysis has to be as accurate as possible.
И каждый год по Волге и Двине, а затем и по всем прочим судоходным рекам тащились баржи и расшивы, гружёные бочками с солёной рыбой. Hа пристанях грузчики скатывали бочки на берег, перегружали на телеги. Каждая бочка весила около полутонны и можно представить, что сталось бы с человеком, неловко оказавшимся на пути подобного груза, ведь бочки на наклонных сходнях разгонялись весьма ощутимо. Отсюда – первейшее правило грузчиков: не катить бочку на человека. А поскольку промысел этот бытовал по всей России, то и выражение “катить бочку” было понятно всюду, а не только в портовых городах, хотя оно никогда не считалось литературным. Да и трудно рассчитывать, что идиома, родившаяся на самом дне русского общества, будет с восторгом принята культурной прослойкой. И сегодня выражение это считается вульгарным, неприемлемым в приличном обществе, хотя значение его вполне безобидно. Катить на кого-либо бочку значит неспровоцированно нападать, угрожать или обвинять в чём-либо этого человека. Причём совершенно неважно, справедливы обвинения или нет. Важен сам факт нападения на человека, который лично тебе ничего плохого не сделал.
Бочку катить
разг. вести себя агрессивно по отношению к кому-либо, придираться к кому-либо, критиковать кого-либо, предъявлять претензии к кому-либо ◆ Отсутствует пример употребления (см. рекомендации).
This reasoning, described in the article below, is quite plausible and common sense, and it should be considered as one of the explanatory options.
Furthermore, if my hypothesis of “Boshirov, Petrov, Fedotov” as the dead drop servicing team is correct, and if the same team was sent to various places to perform these functions, it might lead to the following thoughts.
These persons are the part of the private Yanukovych-Skripal intelligence service, and they are connected first of all and most of all with the Ukranian Intelligence Services and then, with the Russian Intelligence Services. But these connections do not mean the active service or the direct employment by these Services. I think that this is the important distinction to make. The use of the same team might mean that their resources are limited, and this is another indication that the official Services, with their practically, and for these purposes, unlimited resources, probably were not involved directly.
It is only the common sense to assume that the professional killers handling the neurotoxic gases or substances would not have behaved the way Boshirov and Petrov did. No self-respecting Intelligence Service would use these people for these purposes.
Britain may have missed the real ‘novichok assassins’ in Salisbury by concentrating on the Russian pair who were widely seen on CCTV, an ex-GRU spy has claimed.
The anonymous retired agent claimed Russian military intelligence uses ‘liquidators’ to kill enemies – but doubts that the men named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are plausible as killers.
They could, however, have been ‘watchers’ to report on security around the Skripal family home in Salisbury and pass information to the real hit squad which remain unseen to MI5 and the police, he claimed.
Britain may have missed the real ‘novichok assassins’ in Salisbury by concentrating on the Russian pair who were widely seen on CCTV (pictured), an ex-GRU spy has claimed
Petrov and Boshirov appeared on television to claim that they visited Salisbury as tourists
Petrov and Boshirov used Russian passports to fly to Britain and appear to have engaged in a sex-and-drugs session in their London hotel – as well as being spotted by a host of TV cameras – while on their GRU mission, according to reports.
But the GRU would not have sent assassins to Britain using Russian passports, the ex-agent was quoted as telling newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets today.
Nor would the real ‘liquidators’ have been so inept at avoiding CCTV cameras.
‘Nowadays it is no problem to make a high quality foreign passport for any country,’ he boasted.
‘If it had been needed to send real liquidators for a serious task, then, for example, a citizen of Latvia and a citizen of the Dominican Republic would have entered the country.
‘And when the task was completed, the citizen of Hungary and a citizen of Puerto Rico would have left the country.’
The GRU – which is part of the Russian defence ministry – always had ‘strict rules’ on assassinating enemies, said the former agent.
‘Each liquidation operation is designed in detail,’ he explained. ‘Several options for escape are worked out.’
Schemes for ‘liquidating unlucky liquidators’ were also drawn up.
He insisted: ‘There is an option that Petrov and Boshirov were not liquidators – but performed some minor task.’
They might have ‘kept an eye on the area and passed information to the real liquidators’.
His account is likely to be dismissed by Britain as yet another bid by Moscow to muddy the water amid overwhelming evidence of the links of Petrov and Boshirov to the GRU.
The anonymous retired agent claimed Russian military intelligence uses ‘liquidators’ to kill enemies – but doubts that the men named as Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov (right) are plausible as killers
Moscow has already come up with dozens of versions, the British have alleged.
But unusually the former GRU staffer conceded that the Russians use death squads, and might have done so in the Skripal case.
‘Of course, such people exist, not only in the Russian secret service but in any other too,’ he said.
He also claimed that the pair seen on CCTV may have been replaced by actors for the stilted RT broadcast last week when they went public to deny any involvement.
‘The main question about Petrov-Boshirov is not if they are killers or gay tourists,’ he said. The main one is if they are really Petrov and Boshirov.
‘It might well have been like this: the British secret service located two people and considered them to be liquidators.
‘And the Russian authorities quickly found two similar looking guys and “appointed” them Petrov and Boshirov.’
Unimpressed with their performance he said: ‘Somebody just did not spend much time searching – and first two suitable guys from the service were taken. They are soldiers and could not disobey the order.’
The pair in Salisbury should have been taught to watch out for CCTV cameras and mask their traces, he said.
‘The problem is that in England, as far as I know, the density of such cameras is very high.
‘So at the stage of preparation the task had to be different – not to avoid the cameras but to mask well. How to hide traces?
‘Well, the first thing is not to make any traces – not to live together (in the same hotel), not to arrive and leave together, not to approach the Skripals’ house together.’
Savaging their espionage tradecraft in Salisbury, he said: ‘If these two guys (Petrov and Boshirov) really are intelligence officers, if they were truly involved in this attempt to liquidate the Skripals, then it means that (our) whole authority has collapsed. And this is truly horrible.’
The only other option was that they were part of a ‘mafia’ operation to kill ex-GRU agent Skripal because he had been involved in criminal work, possibly in Spain, he said.
Russia’s Salisbury suspects reportedly tailed Sergey Skripal in Prague in 2014 Meduza
The two alleged Russian military intelligence officers accused of trying to assassinate double agent Sergey Skripal in Salisbury, England, reportedly tailed him in Prague in October 2014, according to the public radio broadcaster Český Rozhlas, citing …
Poisoning suspects `tracked Sergei Skripal in Czech Republic in 2014´ Daily Mail
British police say the two suspects were agents from Russian military intelligence unit GRU, and that they used a Soviet-made nerve agent Novichok to poison Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4. Russia denies wrongdoing and the Czech …
USA, France, Germany and Canada back UK over Novichok poisonings Attack Wing Herald
Theresa May has looked for allies of weight to endorse her ordeal to Russia. The governments of the United States, France,Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom signed on Thursday a joint statement in which they strongly support the harsh allegations …
EU paves way for Russia sanctions over chemical weapons Taiwan News
It is important “to make clear that something like this can’t be left unpunished,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
Read more: Novichok nerve agents – Russia’s dangerous ‘new’ poison. The measure would also apply to anyone helping orencouraging chemical weapons attacks, and includes the … Britain, along with countries such as Germany, France, Canada and the US …and more »
Trump Comments Provide No Grist for Russian Disinformation Mill StopFake.org
ICYMI: The United States joins the UK along with France, Germany & Canada to reiterate their “outrage at the use of a chemical nerve agent, known as Novichok, in Salisbury on 4 March.” pic.twitter.com/0vlcoi9uHm. — U.S. Embassy London (@USAinUK) …and more »
Try COINTELPRO on them! Pepper-spray them from the motorcycles!
Disclaimer and Clarification for our most studious and brightest FBI investigators: this title is the literary device of irony, not a call to violence. So give your new “carpetas” the correct tags and labels, dance ethically and esthetically, keep your guns securely holstered, and do not drink too much. Are they able or willing to understand the difference? Hopefully, they kapish. They are not that dumb. Hopefully. Most importantly, address the issues.
Italy’s government approved a draft budget law for next year, confirming a set of expansionary measures that could lead to a fast-rising deficit and a conflict with the European Union.WSJ.com: World News
As I posted earlier, I had the same impression: that “Bellingcat’s research” is based mostly (99%) on the leak(s) but not on the “scientific evidence”. Do not use Science as the cover. It is called the profanation of Science. You can demonstrate your point without using the false pretenses of the “scientific proof”. M.N. 10.15.18
MAGADAN, October 14. /TASS/. Bellingcat, a UK-based open source and social media investigation site, has conducted no investigation of its own into the Salisbury incident, instead it released data leaked by intelligence services ahead of the British delegation’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Rossiya-1 television channel.
“Bellingcat conducted no probe into the Salisbury incident. Belligcat had been silent to six months, saying nothing about what had happened there. They simply released information they had been given ahead of the British delegation’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly,” she said.
According to the Russian diplomat, what Bellingcat presented as its own findings in fact were materials provided by Western intelligence services. “But there is no investigation either into the Salisbury or Amesbury incidents. It is nothing but the use of pseudo-mass media as a tool to circulate such fakes,” she said.
If the British version of the affair is to be believed former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal, 66, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia, 33, suffered the effects of a nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident. Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia ever had any program aimed at developing such an agent.
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On September 5, British Prime Minister Theresa May briefed parliament on the investigation’s findings to declare that two Russians carrying passports issued in the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were suspected accomplices in the assassination attempt. Britain regards both men as GRU agents. Petrov and Boshirov in an interview to the RT television channel dismissed the charges.
In late September, The Daily Telegraph claimed it knew the real name of the person suspected of the assassination attempt against the Skripals. The newspaper said that the man originally identified as Ruslan Boshirov was in reality Russian Colonel Anatoly Chepiga, a holder of several government awards. Later on, a Bellingcat representative told the British parliament that the real name of the man identified as Petrov was Alexander Mishkin.
Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said following this publication that he had “no information that a man by this name has ever received any award.” Following Bellingact’s revelations about ‘Mishkin,’ Peskov said that the Kremlin would refrain from debates about medial allegations about Russian ‘GRU agents.’.
Above: Watch SCMP reporter explore dead drops in Hong Kong
There was a time when Hong Kong was a hotbed of spies: during the Cold War undercover agents from America, China, Britain and Russia were active here. Those days are over, but for Hong Kong’s espionage enthusiasts there is a new reason for some old-school spycraft: art.
Over the past five years, Berlin-based artist Aram Bartholl has reinvented the dead drop, for an ongoing global art project.
On his website, Bartholl describes the project as an “anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space,” and explains that he started it when he was artist in residence at the art and technology centre Eyebeam in Brooklyn, New York in 2010. A USB connector sticks out of a wall. Photo: Dead Drop
He hid five USB thumb drives around New York City, often embedded in concrete walls or curbs with just the tip sticking out. The idea was for people to plug the bit of the USB sticking out of the wall into their laptops and find… well, just about anything. Each drive started out with just an explanation about the project, encouraging people to take or leave whatever files they chose. He also posted instructions on how to install their own dead drops on his website. The rest was up to the public, and they took to it avidly.
During the golden age of spying, the dead drop was an invaluable tool: a letter, picture or microfilm would be deposited in a secret hiding place — often a hollow rock, or false bit of brick — for another spy to pick up. That way information could be passed between agents without them ever having to meet in person and endanger their secret identities. In the era of email encryption, and satellite communication, it is doubtful that a dead drop is still a part of a modern spy’s repertoire, but thanks to Bartholl today, there are more than 1,500 active drops across the globe, on every continent save Antarctica.
The project courted controversy after instructions for manufacturing methamphetamine, and schematics for making a bomb were found on drops in Europe
Each drop is catalogued in an online database, giving its date of installation, size and location coordinates. Imagine our excitement when we saw, ninth on the list and installed on March 6, Hong Kong’s very own dead drop, located on the first floor of the Ho Sin Hang Engineering Building at the Chinese University in Sha Tin. We went searching for it and were able to find it without too much trouble.
The Sha Tin drop is a bit different from the typical USB stick drops. It is an online dead drop: once you get in range you are able to join a small wi-fi network and get access to the drop. The site you see is pirate themed, with an explanation about how the project works, a chat area, an online forum and a place to upload and download files.
The project has courted controversy after instructions for how to manufacture methamphetamines, and schematics for making a bomb were found on drops in Europe. We were excited to see what kind of forbidden information Hongkongers were keen to share and, while there were certainly no bomb instructions, the contents were politically provocative: a photograph of the Lennon wall at the height of the Occupy Central protests, and a full length digital copy of Under the Dome, former TV presenter Chai Jing’s documentary about pollution in China, which was recently removed from Chinese video sites.
We uploaded a few surprises ourselves but to reveal them here would hardly be good spying.
Не ходите к нему, бандерлоги Там бандиты в кремлёвской берлоге Раздаётся там жертв его стон Пожирает их Вова Питон
Натянул он красивую маску Смазал мёдом змеиное жало Хочет всех подкупить своей лаской И всё врёт без конца и начала! На века он залез в зомбоящик Держит всех он как в лагерной клетке Правит всем как Кащей настоящий И играет страной на рулетке Он весь мир хочет взять на арапа Всех и вся озомбировать хочет Назначает врагов и сатрапов И злорадно и злобно хохочет Для него вы все лишь обезьяны И источник его биллионов Превратил он всех в стадо баранов А страну – в свой общак без законов!
20 hours ago – But he now faces allegations of plotting to use novichok on former MI6 … Russian double engine Boris Karphichkov says he was informed that …
Vladimir Putin has ordered Salisbury novichok hitman to assassinate …
14 hours ago – Rex has Russian double engine Boris Karphichkov says he was informed that the plotEPATrump of Putin earlier made the claims as & # 39; …
Vladimir Putin ‘ordered Salisbury novichok hitman to … – Firenews
20 hours ago – VLADIMIR Putin ordered the Salisbury novichok assassin to murder … But he now faces allegations of plotting to use novichok on former MI6 … Russian double engine Boris Karphichkov says he was informed that Putin’s plot.
Vladimir Putin: Boris Berezovsky wrote two letters asking for …
Apr 25, 2013 – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Boris Berezovsky Photo: … Both letters, Mr Putin said, contained the same plea. “He … In exile, Berezovsky became a vocal Putin opponent, at one point claiming that he was plotting a …
Michael Novakhov imagines: Mr. Lavrov: “Thank you, thank you. I am so glad that everyone liked our heroic performance. Deutschland Uber Alles! Heil Putin! We are no Novichoks in ziz bizniz.” “А где Федот (который не тот)?” Very reasonable question. 10.14.18
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Перед началом оперативного совещания с постоянными членами Совета Безопасности.
UK counter-terrorism plans cross line on human rights, say MPs … The securityminister, Ben Wallace, said: “It is our view that the measures in … and respond to the evolving threats posed by terrorism and hostile state activity.
An agreement to help the US prosecute two British Islamic State suspects who … face the death penalty is not unprecedented, the UK’s security minister has said. Ben Wallace said that although the process of mutual legal …
Terrorists “continue to explore ways to kill us in our streets” and will eventually use chemical and biological weapons on British soil, Britain’s Minister of State for Security Ben Wallace warned Tuesday, Anadolu reports.
The country must face up to the possibility of such attacks, Wallace said.
Speaking at a national security conference, Wallace said he sees plots where “the only limits to the ambition of our adversaries is their imagination”.
“Chemical and biological weapons are marching in closer,” he added.
He said the terrorists “have developed and worked on a better arsenal, and we have to be prepared that might come to our streets here”.
Underlining that there is no doubt over the reality of the threat, Wallace stressed that “our open, liberal and free societies are easy prey to those that fear little and care even less”.
A team of experts last week revealed various response measures in case of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attack.
They said they have developed tools to determine casualty exposures through rapid tests, use of drones to measure toxicity in the atmosphere and crisis communication instruments to stop fake news.
Echoing Wallace and speaking at the same event, the country’s top security official, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, said those kinds of weapons “have been used on the battlefield, and what’s used on the battlefield will eventually be adapted to be used on domestic soil”.
Basu said Wallace was “as concerned as I am that these are the kind of threats that we’ve got to take very seriously and we’ve got to make sure that we have the right preparations to actually counter that threat, should it appear”.
In June, British Home Secretary Sajid Javid revealed new counter-terrorism strategy legislation.
The legislation, according to Javid, will have six key points, which are to disrupt threats earlier, to continue necessary support for counter-terrorism policing and intelligence services, to work more closely with international partners, to increase cooperation with key partners and the private sector, to work with technology companies to get terrorist material off the internet and to do more to prevent people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Read: Syria offers amnesty to deserters, draft dodgers
The terror threat level in the UK is “severe”, which means that a terror attack is highly likely.
Last year, 36 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in terror attacks in London and Manchester.
The British government has claimed that in the most debated incident in Salisbury last March, two Russian military intelligence agents who were identified as Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov used a banned nerve agent called novichok targeting former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
In another incident in Amesbury, which British authorities say involved the same nerve agent, a woman died and a man fell seriously ill.
Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill on June 30 after handling an item contaminated with novichok and was taken to a hospital, where she later died, while her partner, Charlie Rowley, 45, was also exposed to the nerve agent and was taken to hospital in critical condition but later recovered.
In both incidents, large public areas were cordoned off and closed to public access for lengthy periods of time for decontamination.
Chemical terrorism is the form of terrorism that uses the toxic effects of chemicals to kill, injure, or otherwise adversely affect the interests of its targets. It can broadly be considered a form of Chemical warfare. Wikipedia
First: A short “introduction” from Wikipedia: Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich (June 30, 1946 in Kiev, Ukraine, in Russian Семен Могилевич, also written as …
The Swallow’s Nest (Ukrainian: Ластівчине гніздо, Lastivchyne hnizdo, Russian: Ласточкино гнездo, Lastochkino gnezdo)[nb 1] is a decorativecastle located at Gaspra, a small spa town between Yalta and Alupka, in the Crimean Peninsula. It was built between 1911 and 1912, on top of the 40-metre (130 ft) high Aurora Cliff, in a Neo-Gothic design by the Russian architect Leonid Sherwood[nb 2] for the Baltic German businessman Baron von Steingel.
The castle overlooks the Cape of Ai-Todor on the Black Sea coast and is located near the remains of the Roman castrum of Charax.[2] The Swallow’s Nest is one of the most popular visitor attractions in Crimea, having become the symbol of Crimea’s southern coastline.[3][4][5]
Salisbury is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States, and the largest city in the state’s Eastern Shore region. The population was 30,343 at the 2010 census. Salisbury is the principal city of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. Wikipedia
For an hour-and-a-half the Russian ambassador to the UK took questions from international journalists on his country’s increasingly aggressive behaviour.
It was a 90-minute exercise in denial and a masterclass in deflection.
Alexander Yakovenko admitted relations between London and Moscow were “very low”, but continued to deny any Russian involvement in the Salisbury poisoning or The Hague spying case.
“We don’t see any co-operation, we don’t see any evidence,” he repeated. It is a well-rehearsed line of attack.
He said the four Russian spies caught allegedly trying to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague were, in fact, just diplomats in the country to work on the embassy’s communications and IT systems.
“They came to Netherlands with a routine mission to the embassy to support technically the embassy and to check the communications line of the embassy for security reasons,” he said.
I asked Mr Yakovenko: “Why did they have onward train tickets to Switzerland then, the home of another OPCW laboratory?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
The evidence is piling up against Russia, the excuses are harder to come by and the broad smile occasionally slips.
This week the investigative website Bellingcat revealed the second identity of the Skripals’ attackers in Salisbury – Dr Alexander Mishkin, formerly known under the alias Alexander Petrov.
The ambassador accused Bellingcat of being an arm of the British dark state, but when challenged he said he couldn’t provide any evidence of that claim.
Given that he repeatedly asked the British government for evidence of their claims, this was a moment of blatant hypocrisy from Russia’s man in London.
He was asked about the embarrassment caused for Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, and if “heads would roll”. He didn’t answer the question.
He was asked if the men behind the Skripal attack would appear in a UK court to clear their name in public. His answer was vague.
He claimed the UK was preventing the extradition of 60 people the Russians want to put on trial, but when it was put to him that Russia could extradite the Skripal accused as a goodwill gesture, he rubbished the idea.
On occasions the journalists openly laughed at the claims and regularly interrupted to challenge him. This set-piece event has become a game between both sides.
The ambassador finished the press conference by asking the journalists when they wanted another one – he clearly enjoys the occasion.
But it’s hard to see they’re doing much to further Russia’s argument.
На совещании с членами Правительства. Слева направо: Первый заместитель Председателя Правительства – Министр финансов Антон Силуанов, заместитель Председателя Правительства – руководитель Аппарата Правительства Константин Чуйченко, заместители Председателя Правительства Юрий Борисов, Ольга Голодец и Дмитрий Козак, заместитель Председателя Правительства – полномочный представитель Президента в Дальневосточном федеральном округе Юрий Трутнев.
The Alliance had its own difficulties at that time, it should work better now, and there are very powerful forces which do not want it to be restored and functioning. And lately, Skripal and his shenanigans might have been the very significant part of these forces.
Driving the multiple wedges between the Allies was the logical Abwehr’s strategy which they pursued with the fanatical and dogged persistence, and this simple but effective strategy continues to be the same to this day.
The most recent (last 20-25 years) phenomenon of the open, cynical, self-destructive, Mafioso Oligarchic Robbery of Russia is an Abomination. Address these issues, work together on eradicating the Global Organized Crime which came to play a certain role in the modern Intelligence Operations. These “by necessity” ties corrupt the Intelligence Organisations visibly and invisibly, it seems to me. Ziz iz not the Leftist position, this is the common sense position.
The important, screaming “gaps in strategic intelligence” have been acknowledged and they are been addressed in order of importance.
In a speech at the University of Louisville, her alma mater, Haspel said the CIA is working to prioritizing closing the “strategic intelligence gaps” …
Ben Wallace, the Minister of State for Security, made the remarks on the potential threat from terrorist groups during a national security summit, when he discussed the potential threat of terrorist groups using deadly toxins to kill.
Anytime a clandestine agency is in the global headlines on a daily basis, something strange is going on. That has certainly been the case with Russia’s military intelligence agency, known by its former abbreviation, the GRU.
British intelligence identified two suspected GRU agents as the culprits in the March nerve-agent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, setting off a chain reaction of revelations about one of the men, identified as GRU Colonel Anatoly Chepiga, and his likely involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the 2015 assassination in Ankara of Chechen rebel commander Abdulvakhid Edelgiriyev.
On October 4, authorities in the Netherlands released a trove of information on an alleged GRU operation in that country aimed at hacking and disrupting international organizations including the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the Dutch investigation into the 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine.
The most emblematically risible piece of evidence was a taxi receipt showing that one of the men had traveled to a Moscow airport directly from GRU headquarters.
In addition, suspected Russian agents have been busted in Norway, Estonia, Greece, and Montenegro in recent months. Off The Rails?
Writing in The Guardian on October 5, Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth called the developments “embarrassing.”
“The exposure of several consecutive European operations should raise questions about whether Russian military intelligence is being intentionally provocative or has simply gone off the rails,” Roth wrote.
Russian state-controlled and state-friendly media have widely reported official denials of any government involvement in the alleged incidents and have denounced them collectively as a new wave of “spymania.”
The Vesti nightly news report for October 5 was typical, arguing that the new accusations were both a “pretext” for imposing new, already planned sanctions against Russia and a bid to unify a fractured West on the cusp of the United Kingdom’s expected withdrawal from the European Union.
But, in other searches for explanations to the onslaught of revelations, some observers have speculated that the GRU was being undermined by another Russian security agency such as the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) or the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The GRU has benefited financially and in terms of prestige from the Kremlin’s conviction that Russia is engaged in a hybrid confrontation with the West, the argument goes, and other security agencies want a bigger piece of the action.
The GRU‘s headquarters in Moscow (file photo)
“I have heard many conspiracy theories along the lines that this is a struggle between the FSB and the GRU, but this is impossible,” Roman Dobrokhotov, editor of The Insider, a Russian publication that partnered with the open-source investigations group Bellingcat to publish many of the recent revelations, told Current Time TV. “It is just that people are trying to rationalize all this — they think it can’t really be so absurd. But for one thing, there is a famous maxim that you should never use a conspiracy to explain something that can be explained by incompetence. And this maxim applies to Russia even more strongly than in any other country.”
Dobrokhotov noted, for example, that his investigations had revealed recently that a GRUagent had sent money to a group in Serbia that was being used to carry out a coup in neighboring Montenegro using Western Union. And he used the address of GRUheadquarters on the delivery order.
Vladimir Frolov, a political analyst who is believed to have been a Russian intelligence agent involved in the handling of notorious FBI double agent Robert Hanssen, made a similar point for the website Republic.ru.
“Of course there have been no attempts by the Russian special services to somehow ‘undermine the GRU‘ by planting information in the media about military spies,” he wrote. “This is a popular myth. The Russian special services are in stiff competition with one another, but no one is going to settle matters by committing high treason or exposing state secrets.” ‘Military Mind-Set’
Part of the explanation for the GRU‘s lapses might lie in the nature of the organization itself. It is a large military operation that is ultimately controlled by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest and reportedly politically ambitious friends, and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who has become the public face of Russia’s doctrine of “hybrid war.”
“Because Shoigu is ambitious, he’s increasing GRU operations abroad to make the Defense Ministry a bigger player in Russian foreign policy,” Russian security analyst Andrei Soldatov told The Telegraph in September.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (left) and armed forces Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov (file photo)
Mark Galeotti, a nonresident fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague and an expert on Russian organized crime and the security forces, wrote in July that the GRU is emerging from a long funk that it endured under former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
“The GRU is back,” Galeotti wrote. “Its budgets are buoyant, its confidence high and its role in international operations reflect its relatively aggressive, military mind-set, where accomplishing the mission is more important than avoiding risks.”
Journalist Dobrokhotov says the GRU‘s rapidly expanding agenda may partially explain its current embarrassing lapses.
“I think it has to do with personnel issues and that there isn’t money to properly train people,” he told Current Time, which is run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. “They don’t have the proper resources. They send the same agents, who have already let the country down, out on new assignments a second time. It would seem to be pure chaos, just a mess. The whole world has learned the word ‘Novichok.’ Now it is time for foreigners to learn the word ‘bardak’ [mess]. It is the best description of what is going on.”
The agency, like the Defense Ministry as a whole, clearly seems to be having trouble coming to grips with the sheer amount of information publicly available on the Internet. In 2014, when the Kremlin was denying all involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, researchers at Bellingcat and elsewhere had no difficulty finding photographs on social media posted by Russian soldiers and boasting of their activities in Ukraine.
Using open sources, Bellingcat has been able to put together a narrative about the shooting down of the MH17 passenger jet in July 2014 that runs circles around the various, often contradictory theories put forward by the Russian Defense Ministry itself. Tip Of The Iceberg?
Other observers, though, are not so sure the incompetence theory explains the situation entirely. In recent years, the Kremlin has seemingly perfected the tactic of throwing out masses of theories and purported evidence and salacious stories as a way of confusing the information space and diverting attention.
As late as October 1, for instance, the mass daily tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, probably Russia’s most broadly influential newspaper, published an interview with an anonymous “university instructor” who supposedly knows the alleged GRU agent in the Skripal case who is known as “Aleksandr Petrov.”
A photo released by the British police showing two men named as Aleksandr Petrov (right) and Ruslan Boshirov who are suspected of being GRU agents involved in the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal.
Petrov, the unidentified source said, is a Kremlin-connected businessman who provides high-ranking officials with “miracle supplements” that are not available in Russia.
Still other commentators have been reminded of the common practice of the Soviet-era KGB of sending intimidating signals to targets. Russian rights activist and former Soviet dissident Viktor Davidoff posted on Facebook that he left Moscow four years ago after returning home one day and finding bits of wire and melted solder on the floor of his apartment.
“Someone was installing eavesdropping equipment and was doing it dirty [intentionally],” he wrote.
In this context, the Kremlin could see the exposure of its overseas efforts not as weakness, but as evidence of its multipronged activity. The tip of the iceberg, so to speak.
New York Times London correspondent Ellen Barry touched on this idea in an October 5 post on Twitter.
“Lots of talk today about GRU incompetence, but it’s equally true that they’ve been getting away with an indefinite number of similar operations for an indefinite period *without* getting caught,” Barry wrote.
Current Time TV correspondent Yegor Maksimov contributed to this report
That has certainly been the case with Russia’s military intelligence agency, known by its former abbreviation, the GRU…. British intelligence identified two suspected GRU agents as the culprits in the March nerve-agent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, setting off a chain reaction of revelations about one of the men, identified as GRU Colonel Anatoly Chepiga, and his likely involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the 2015 assassination in Ankara of Chechen rebel commander Abdulvakhid Edelgiriyev.
BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:40 P.M) – The Russian Reconciliation Center issued a statement on Wednesday blaming western states for terrorist groups obtaining chemical weapons in Syria.
пятница, 12 октября, 2018, 15:13 Мир В Великобритании ведут расследование в отношении третьего подозреваемого по делу Скрипаля, – СМИ Контртеррористическое подразделение полиции Лондона проводит расследование в отношении третьего подозреваемого по инциденту в Солсбери, и рассматривает, можно ли выдвинуть против него обвинения. Об этом сообщает Интерфакс-Украина , ссылаясь на газету «Дейли телегра
Russia has been accused of acting like a “pariah state” by the Defence Secretary after allegations intelligence officers from the Kremlin tried to hack the Foreign Office and the international body investigating the Salisbury nerve agent attack. Dutch authorities disclosed on Thursday how – with the help of UK intelligence – they thwarted an attempted cyber attack on the headquarters of the Organ
Незаметно, но властно, общей тяжестью материалов, которые свалены в общую тяжёлую кучу, весь мир втащили в эту историю и ловко извратили саму её суть. Тут бы кому-то влиятельному прикрикнуть: «Вы что это делаете, мерзавцы!», но такой фигуры до сих пор не нашлось. Попробую я прикрикнуть и разобраться Дело Скрипалей превратилось в увлекательный сериал, в этакую современную «шерлокхолмсиаду». Сериал
The F-22s protected US forces when the US struck Syria in April over chemical weapons use by flying deep into enemy territory populated with sophisticated air defences.
LONDON (AP) — One of the two suspects in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in England is a medical doctor in Russian military intelligence who was honored as a Hero of the Russian Federation by President Vladimir Putin in 2014, a group of British investigators said Tuesday.
Регистрация пользователя в сервисе РИА Клуб на сайте Ria.Ru и авторизация на других сайтах медиагруппы МИА «Россия сегодня» при помощи аккаунта или аккаунтов пользователя в социальных сетях обозначает согласие с данными правилами. Пользователь обязуется своими действиями не нарушать действующее законодательство Российской Федерации. Пользователь обязуется высказываться уважительно по отношению к
Counter-terrorism police are investigating a third suspect in the Salisbury nerve agent attack amid suggestions he acted as look out for two Russian military intelligence assassins. Investigators have identified a “third man” in the poisoning of Colonel Sergei Skripal as a Russian national travelling under the name Sergei Fedotov. Flight details obtained by an independent and respected Russian
Spread the Knowledge FBI News Review » Salisbury Poisoning News Updates Category Feed 1 Police investigating third Russian suspect ‘who acted as lookout’ in Salisbury poisoning case – 3:19 AM 10/12/2018 Counter-terrorism police are investigating a third suspect in the Salisbury nerve agent attack amid suggestions he acted as look out for two Russian military … Continue reading “Salisbury Poisoning
Counter-terrorism police are investigating a third suspect in the Salisbury nerve agent attack amid suggestions he acted as look out for two Russian military intelligence assassins. Investigators have identified a “third man” in the poisoning of Colonel Sergei Skripal as a Russian national travelling under the name Sergei Fedotov. Flight details obtained by an independent and respected Russian
В квартире, в которой прописан второй подозреваемый в отравлении экс-шпиона Сергея Скрипаля Александр Мишкин (“Александр Петров”) якобы проживает тезка ГРУшника Мишкин Александр Дмитриевич. Он, скорее всего, был лишь подставным лицом. Это установила группа Conflict Intelligence Team (СIТ), опубликовав выписки из Росреестра. Так, квартира по адресу ул.Перекопская, 34, принадлежит Мишкиной Надежд
After a week that saw the possible murder or abduction of a Saudi journalist in Turkey, the disappearance of the senior Chinese official heading Interpol and a Western expose of Russian military intelligence, the rules are changing fast.
New research provides evidence linking some of the most impactful cybersecurity incidents on record – the 2015 and 2016 attacks on the Ukrainian power grid and the 2017 NotPetya malware outbreak – to the same set of hackers that Western governments say are sponsored by the Russian government. Researchers from cybersecurity company ESET say they have laid out the first concrete, public evidence of
British Prime Minister Theresa May has said that the men suspected of the poisoning were members of Russian military intelligence acting on orders from a “high level.”
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that President Vladimir Putin has ordered additional security measures after a Syrian Soviet-era S-200 air defence missile shot down a Russian military plane by mistake, killing 15, in an incident last week that Moscow blames on Israel .
Предполагаемые сотрудники ГРУ, известные под именами Руслан Боширов и Александр Петров, начали следить за бывшим двойным агентом Сергеем Скрипалем не позднее, чем за 3,5 года до его отравления. Как сообщает Чешское радио в среду, 10 октября, со ссылкой на источники в разведке, Боширов и Петров под прикрытием прибыли в Чехию в октябре 2014 года — тогда же в страну должен был приехать Скрипаль, пла
M.N.: Interpretation: “I did put our boy in a White House as promised. Salut!”
The Postcards from the Skripals: “My glass is half-full, and mine is three quarters full, note that red marker… Und Me takez zi pictzcha… A lot of chiiize but zi mouthz are shut wide.”
Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, pose for a picture at Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury, Wilts
The Postcards from the Skripals: “My glass is half-full, and mine is three quarters full, note that red marker… Und Me takez zi pictzcha… A lot of chiiize but zi mouthz are shut wide.”
Police swoop on Zizzi following the poison attack in the small Wiltshire city on Sunday:
The pair are fighting for life while a police officer – who was the first cop on site – remains seriously ill following the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Wilts, on Sunday.
Counter terror cops are investigating the possibility that Kremlin-linked assassins slipped deadly sarin nerve gas into Sergei’s present as daughter Yulia prepared to fly over from Moscow days earlier.
Another theory being probed is that the gas was sprayed into their faces or slipped into their drinks in Zizzi or the Mill pub.
Sergei and Yulia raise a glass for the camera at Zizzi in a picture believed to have been taken in 2016.
M.N.: Interpretation: “I did put our boy in a White House as promised. Salut!”
(See the picture on the menu in the front, vaguely reminding the White House appearance, behind the glass of the red wine which is three quarters empty: “more is to come”.)
“There is a lot of gravy there, and I hold that ass by the handle.
Vsyo putyom! Do not doubt it, we will win!”
Sergei Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, are pictured in the same Italian where they had lunch shortly before they were found slumped unconscious on a shopping centre bench in Salisbury, Wilts
By Sam Christie
9th March 2018, 11:45 am
Updated: 9th March 2018, 11:50 am
A FORMER double agent and his daughter pose in the Zizzi restaurant at the centre of a Russian spy poisoning probe. Sergei Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, are pictured in the same Italian where they had lunch shortly before they were found slumped unconscious on a shopping centre bench.
The pair are fighting for life while a police officer – who was the first cop on site – remains seriously ill following the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Wilts, on Sunday.
Counter terror cops are investigating the possibility that Kremlin-linked assassins slipped deadly sarinnerve gas into Sergei’s present as daughter Yulia prepared to fly over from Moscow days earlier.
Another theory being probed is that the gas was sprayed into their faces or slipped into their drinks in Zizzi or the Mill pub.
Sergei and Yulia raise a glass for the camera at Zizzi in a picture believed to have been taken in 2016.
M.N.: This intimate knowledge of the Russian Passport system and the names of the operatives could come from Skripal himself and/or his associates and connections. Apparently, “Sergei Fedotov” is also a “wrong Fedot (Theodor)” – this is most likely his operational name also; and he probably functioned as the controller in this group of three. It might also be the wrong “Sergei”. “The-odor”: the smell test for determining the right or wrong Theodor is their “odor test”; they are what they smell like. And Mr. Skripal smells to me as the big adventure seeker. The role of Skripal puzzles me. I think he could be the Co-Demiurge for the past 8-10 years. The purpose of the Operation Novichok might have been the personnel rotation in the GRU’s and others “Agentura” outside Russia, with the banishment of about 150 Russian diplomats cum agents.
The real “Novichoks” are the “Newcomers”, the Russian Intelligence Services agents whom, it is very possible, Mr. Skripal selected in one way or another himself or who were selected by the Demiurge, or by them jointly; and they intend to keep them under their control.
This might have been the design of the Co-Demiurges from the beginning. If it is so the worst of the crisis for Russia is over but the puzzle is unsolved. I respectfully recommend to all the parties involved, to investigate Mr. Skripal very carefully, and also, and very importantly, to investigate who might be possibly behind him. The hypothetical connection, as I see it now, is:
Theodore is a masculine given name. It comes from the Greek name Θεόδωρος (Theódoros) meaning “God-given” (from the Greek words θεός, (theós) “God” and δώρον (dōron) “gift”).[1] The name was borne by several figures in ancient Greece, such as Theodorus of Samos and Theodorus the Atheist, but gained popularity due to the rise of Christendom.
In any form, it means “God-given”, or “gift of God”: as do the given names Jonathan, Nathanael, Mattaniah, Matthew, Dosetai, Bogdan (or Bohdan), Ataullah, Adeodatus and Devadatta.
The feminine form of Theodore is Theodora. The names Dorothy and Godiva also mean “gift of God”.
Fedotov’s passport number differs by only a few digits.
It is of the same ‘64 series’ linked to not only Chepiga and Mishkin but also to other suspected agents such as Col Eduard Shishmakov, who is accused of the failed plot to assassinate the prime minister of Montenegro before its referendum to join Nato.
Fedotov’s passport number differs by only a few digits.
It is of the same ‘64 series’ linked to not only Chepiga and Mishkin but also to other suspected agents such as Col Eduard Shishmakov, who is accused of the failed plot to assassinate the prime minister of Montenegro before its referendum to join Nato.
According to Fontaka, Fedotov previously travelled to the UK in March 2016 and March 2017 and again this year. It said he also flew to the Czech Republic with Mishkin in January and February 2014 ahead of an apparent operation to monitor the movements of Col Skripal, who at the time was said to be briefing Czech secret services.
It raises the prospect that Col Skripal, who had been living in the UK since a spy swap in 2010, had been a GRU target for at least four years. Chepiga and Mishkin returned to the Czech Republic in October 2014, the same month that Skripal travelled to the country to advise local intelligence officers on Russian espionage activities.
Russian Website Names Third Person Allegedly Involved In Skripal Poisoning RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
Russian website fontanka.ru says a GRU military intelligence operative whose name is Sergei Fedotov is allegedly the third Russian agent involved in trying to kill former spySergei Skripal in Britain earlier this year. Cybersleuthing group Bellingcat …
Russian website fontanka.ru says a GRU military intelligence operative whose name is Sergei Fedotov is allegedly the third Russian agent involved in trying to kill former spy Sergei Skripal in Britain earlier this year.
Cybersleuthing group Bellingcat has named two men who Britain suspects poisoned Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March as being GRU officers Aleksandr Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga, who were awarded Hero of the Russian Federation medals by President Vladimir Putin for actions in Ukraine. In a post on October 10, fontanka.ru said it has learned that Britain is ready to declare the 45-year-old Fedotov as an accomplice to Mishkin and Chepiga, who traveled to Britain under the names Aleksandr Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
The website said records show Fedotov visited Britain in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and left the country on March 4 of this year, when Mishkin and Chepiga also flew out of Britain and the same day Skripal and his daughter were found slumped on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury.
Furthermore, fontanka.ru said, Fedotov in January and February 2014 traveled to the Czech Republic at the same time as Mishkin and Chepiga.
The fontana.ru posting came the same day as a report by Czech Radio (CR), which said the two Russians shadowed Skripal in Prague in 2014 while he was in the Czech capital.
Britain said the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union, and mentioned the two men who traveled with passports under the names of Petrov and Boshirov as officers from the GRU who carried out the attack.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the poisoning, as have the two men identified by Britain.
The Skripals survived after weeks in critical condition, but Dawn Sturgess, a woman who authorities said came in contact with the poison after her boyfriend found a fake perfume bottle containing it, died in July.
Last month, The Telegraph newspaper said British police had identified a third Russian intelligence officer they believe carried out a reconnaissance mission before the attempted murder of Skripal.
The paper did not name him.
Вот и наш Федот Тумусов не так открыт для народа, как он представляется сам. Как вы наверняка догадались, он, что говорится, парень себе на уме!
И не надо лишних слов: это может подтвердить лишь единый факт — вряд ли кто припомнит человека, которого подозревали бы, и вполне обоснованно, в растрате огромной суммы денег, полученной в результате продажи взятого в кредит тонны золота.
Fedotov’s passport number differs by only a few digits. It is of the same ‘64 series’ linked to not only Chepiga and Mishkin but also to other suspected agents such as Col Eduard Shishmakov, who is accused of the failed plot to assassinate the prime minister of Montenegro before its referendum to join Nato.
According to Fontaka, Fedotov previously travelled to the UK in March 2016 and March 2017 and again this year. It said he also flew to the Czech Republic with Mishkin in January and February 2014 ahead of an apparent operation to monitor the movements of Col Skripal, who at the time was said to be briefing Czech secret services.
It raises the prospect that Col Skripal, who had been living in the UK since a spy swap in 2010, had been a GRU target for at least four years. Chepiga and Mishkin returned to the Czech Republic in October 2014, the same month that Skripal travelled to the country to advise local intelligence officers on Russian espionage activities.
Details of the stinging rebuke emerged as the second hitman was exposed as a military doctor.
Alexander Mishkin, 39, was personally presented with a Hero of the Russian Federation award by the Kremlin chief.
Mishkin was named by investigative website Bellingcat as the suspect who flew to London, then travelled to Wiltshire in March under the pseudonym Alexander Petrov.
His identification came after that of co-accused Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, also 39.
Bellingcat investigator Cristo Grozev said Mishkin grew up in Loyga, a remote village in northern Russia and was recruited to the GRU by the age of 24.
He joined St Petersburg’s military medical academy in 2003 and specialised in marine physiology.
Miskhin moved to Moscow nine years ago and served in Russia’s wars with neighbours Transnistria and East Ukraine.
Investigators cross-referenced addresses and phone numbers with a photo of Mishkin which emerged after the Skripal attack.
Mr Grozev said reporters from Russian website The Insider had reached Loyga and spoken to seven people who knew him.
“They confirmed that their homeboy Alexander Mishkin was the person who moved on to military school and then became a famous military doctor and who received the award of Hero of the Russian Federation,” he said.
“His grandmother, with whom he grew up…has a photograph, in her own words, that has been seen by everybody in the village of President Putin shaking Mishkin’s hand and giving him the award.
“Interestingly, we have not seen her because the moment we announced this press conference today, the grandmother was asked to visit her children – Mr Mishkin’s father and mother – in another town so she vanished from the village three days ago.”
British intelligence chiefs want to question Mishkin and Chepiga over the attack which almost killed Mr Skripal, 67, and daughter Yulia, 34, and led to the death of Dawn Sturgess 44, in July.
Security minister Ben Wallace warned yesterday that Britain must face up to the possibility of a chemical or biological attack.
Mr Wallace told a London conference: “Terrorists continue to explore new ways to kill us on our streets. Chemical and biological weapons are marching in closer.”
Russia’s military leaders have reportedly called its intelligence service “deeply incompetent” after Western investigators accused its agents of being behind the nerve agent poisoning in England and an attempted hack into the global chemical weapons watchdog.
In the past two weeks alone, Western investigators found that agents of Russia’s military intelligence service — commonly known as the GRU — were behind the attempted assassination of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and an attempted h ack into the global chemical weapons watchdog’s headquartersearlier this year.
Both missions ultimately failed, and investigators pointed fingers at GRU agents — Russia’s leaders are reportedly not happy.
The country’s defense ministry held a secret meeting on Saturday to discuss the recent reports of GRU blunders, and had some angry words to say, Russia’s MBK news site reported on Monday, citing an unnamed source.
The GRU was described in the meeting, MBK said, as “deeply incompetent,” “infinitely careless,” “morons,” and people that “would still wear the budenovka” — a phrase that means being outdated. The budenovka was a military hat worn in the late 1910s and early 1920s, shortly after the Russian tsar was deposed.
The defense leaders are also considering a “big sweep” at the GRU and ask some of its generals to leave, MBK said.
MBK was founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a prominent Kremlin critic.
Last month the UK accused two Russian men of traveling to Salisbury, England, and poisoning Skripal and his daughter with military-grade nerve agent this March, and said they were GRU agents traveling under pseudonyms.
Putin, whose government has long denied having any knowledge of the attack, initially claimed that the two men’s names — identified at the time as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov — “mean nothing to us,” then said that they were civilians.
The two men also went on national Russian TV to say that they only visited England to visit a cathedral.
Investigative journalism site Bellingcat, however, has since identified Petrov as Dr. Alexander Mishkin, “a trained military doctor in the employ of the GRU,” and Boshirov as Col. Anatoliy Chepiga, a highly decorated officer with the GRU.
Last week, the Netherlands also accused four Russian GRU agents of trying to launch a cyberattack on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the world’s chemical weapons watchdog. The OPCW was, at the time, investigating the nerve agent attack on Skripal and a reported chemical attack in Douma, Syria, where Russian jets have bombed.
The men — two tech experts and two support agents — were caught red-handed and attempted to destroy some of the equipment to conceal their actions, Dutch authorities said.
The Netherlands then determined that they were agents of the GRU after finding that one of their phones was activated near the GRU building in Moscow, and discovering a receipt for a taxi journey from a street near the GRU to the Moscow airport, the BBC reported.
Mark Urban, a British journalist who recently wrote a book about Skripal, wrote in The Times on Tuesday: “It would be surprising if this series of compromised operations did not trigger some realignment in Moscow, a further round of struggle between the spy bosses.
“The mockery of the GRU for its recent upsets, both globally and on Russian social media, must have rankled. Whatever the intentions of the Salisbury operation, they cannot have included opening decorated heroes of the agency up for ridicule,” Urban added, referring to Chepiga and Mishkin.
Putin’s popularity at home also hit a record low this year when he broke a 13-year-old promise not to hike the country’s national retirement age, which could mean that many Russians will miss out on a pension altogether.
The two Russian men suspected by British intelligence of poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England in March shadowed the former double agent in Prague in 2014, Czech Radio (CR) has cited sources as saying. In an October 10 report, CR cited unnamed Czech intelligence sources as saying that the Russians — whom cybersleuthing group Bellingcat says it has unmasked as military intelligence officers Anatoly Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin — visited Prague in 2014 and that Skripal was there at the same time.
“It looks like the Russians had a group of people that followed Skripal long before the attempt to assassinate him,” the publicly funded Czech radio station quoted one source as saying.
According to the report, the two Russians used the same names as those on the passports British authorities said they used when they traveled to Britain shortly before Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned: Ruslan Boshirov and Aleksandr Petrov.
British authorities allege that the two Russians smeared a Soviet-designed nerve agent called Novichok on the front door of Skripal’s home in the English city of Salisbury on March 4, the day the former Russian intelligence officer spy and his daughter were found incapacitated on a bench and rushed to the hospital.
Both survived after weeks in critical condition, but Dawn Sturgess, a woman who authorities said came in contact with the poison after her boyfriend found a fake perfume bottle containing it, died in July.
Czech Foreign Minister Martin Stropnicky said before leaving his post in June that Skripal, who settled in Britain after he was released from Russian prison and sent West in a 2010 spy swap, has visited the Czech Republic and several other European Union countries to consult with their intelligence services.
Media outlets have reported that Skripal was in the Czech Republic in 2012. The New York Times has reported that he “met with Czech intelligence officials on several occasions and visited Estonia in 2016 to meet with local spies.”
The Russian Embassy in Prague declined to comment on whether the two men had traveled to Prague, saying in an e-mail response that the “matter of border-crossing by foreign nationals is within the competence of the Czech Republic’s corresponding state structures,” CR reported.
The poisoning has added tension to already severely strained ties between Russia and the West, leading to additional U.S. and European Union sanctions on Moscow and to diplomatic expulsions of Russian and Western officials.
Russia denies involvement, but Bellingcat’s findings have added to the evidence against Moscow. The British-based independent investigative group also says that Chepiga and Mishkin have made multiple trips to various parts of Europe and elsewhere in the past few years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 12 that the two men accused by Britain were civilians. In comments on October 3 in which he called Skripal a traitor and a “scumbag,” longtime Soviet-era KGB officer Putin said that the former Russian spy “continued cooperating with some secret services” after he went West in the swap.
Skripal, a former colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU, was convicted of treason in 2006 by a Russian court and had been serving a 10-year prison sentence when the swap, in which 10 sleeper agents including Anna Chapman were sent home to Russia from the United States, took place.
Last Saturday, the intelligence agency held a secret meeting.
The counterintelligence of the Netherlands monitored the GRU agents from the very beginning of the cyberattack operation on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a source in the military department told journalist Sergey Kanev.
“Most likely, they tapped the telephone number of the second secretary of our embassy, Kostya Bakhtin, who constantly called up Khoroshevka (military unit 45 807) and discussed the details of the operation. By the way, he was also responsible for the technical issues and handed over the necessary equipment to these idiots,” the MBKh-Media quotes the source.
According to the security official, Bakhtin faces resignation and, “it is possible that not only his shoulder straps will be removed.”
According to the Dosye (Dossier), Bakhtin graduated from the 1st Department of the Military Diplomatic Academy (VDA). While studying he lived in the same house as Anatoly Chepiga, who is allegedly hiding under the name of Ruslan Boshirov, whom the UK accused of poisoning the Skripals. According to Kanev, the families of Bakhtin and Chepiga were friends with each other and spent holidays together.
After Bakhtin was sent to the Netherlands as the second secretary of the Russian embassy, the intelligence diplomat allegedly looked for ways to be introduced into the international investigation team of the Malaysian Boeing crash over the Donbas. According to Bellingcat, the plane was shot down from the Russian Buk complex. It is to be recalled that 298 people died as a result of the given plane crash.
Bakhtin’s last task, according to Kanev, was to coordinate the preparation of cyberattacks on the headquarters of the OPCW in the Hague.
On October 6, Roskomnadzor blocked the mirror of the MBK-Media’s website, which repeatedly published the results of Sergey Kanev’s investigations. The journalist himself went abroad because of the threat of arrest.