A terrifying new twist has emerged in the Novichok poisonings in the UK, in which two Russian men allegedly attempted to murder a former KGB spy and his daughter with a deadly nerve agent, earlier this year.
The two Russian men, recently identified as Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, had been in the cathedral city of Salisbury in March, allegedly to visit a famous clock, when the attacks occurred, leaving one woman dead and her partner in hospital, reports news.com.au.
Reports have now surfaced that, following the attacks, two other Russian spies were plotting to hack into the computer systems of Swiss Spiez Laboratory which was analysing the Novichok agent.
Swiss publication Tages Anzeiger and Dutch paper NRC have reported that the two men, who have yet to be identified, were arrested back in March and detained in The Hague before being extradited back to Russia.
This case is seriously complex, it involves many moving parts and players, and reads like something out of a spy novel.
We have two Russians, claiming to be innocent tourists in an English city, at the exact time that a former Russian spy and his daughter are attacked with a deadly nerve agent.
We also have another innocent couple, exposed to the same deadly nerve agent, one of which dies days later.
The deadly nerve agent effectively shuts down a city, with officials in hazmat suits casing the streets in search of the perpetrators.
And now, we hear of the arrest of a second pair of Russians, who had been plotting a cyber attack of the Spiez Laboratory computers. The Swiss lab was testing the deadly nerve agent at the time.

You just cannot make this stuff up.
In an attempt to clear their name, Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov gave a bizarre television interview with TV network Russia Today, claiming they were simply in the area to marvel at it’s many historical wonders.
“Our friends had been telling us for some time we should visit this wonderful town,” Petrov said.
After an awkward silence in the interview, Boshirov filled it by clarifying they had visited the Salisbury Cathedral, which is famous for its “123-metre spire and its clock, one of the first ever created in the world that’s still working”.
Even British Prime Minister Theresa May isn’t buying their story, slamming it as “blatant fabrications” this month.
The comments have prompted a backlash from Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, who claimed the Kremlin had remained “unambiguous, transparent and consistent” throughout the entire saga.
“It is unacceptable to associate the Russian leadership or government with what went on in Salisbury,
“More so to blame Russia of lies following a statement by two civilians. These men are ordinary citizens with no relation to government”.
It’s safe to say it has been a big week for British and Russian relations…
So, in the wake of the claims and counterclaims in this extraordinary case, let’s take a look at everything we know about the Novichok poisonings.

FRIDAY, MARCH 2

3pm:
Two Russian men arrive at Gatwick Airport, using business visas under the names of Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov. They had flown from Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2588.
5.40pm: The pair arrived at Victoria station in London around this time.
6pm: They then travelled to Waterloo station and onto East London before staying the next two nights at the City Stay Hotel.

SATURDAY, MARCH 3

11.45am:
The two men left their hotel and took a train to Waterloo station.
2.25pm: They took another train which arrived at Salisbury around this time.
4.10pm: Police believe the men left Salisbury for the day around 4pm and got back to their hotel at approximately 8pm.

SUNDAY, MARCH 4

8.05am:
The pair made the same journey from their hotel back to Salisbury where police believe they contaminated Skripal’s front door with the deadly Novichok nerve agent.
9.15am: Sergei Skripal is seen driving his BMW in the city.
11.48am: The pair is seen arriving at Salisbury train station just before 12pm. They’re spotted a few minutes later at a local Shell petrol station close to Sergei Skripal’s home.
12pm: The attack is believed to have occurred around this time. The perpetrators are understood to have doused the front door of Skripal’s home in Novichok.
1.05pm: Boshirov and Petrov are spotted in the city centre. It’s not known how they got there.
1.40pm: Sergei and his daughter Yulia are seen in the city centre. Police suspect that the father and daughter may have been home when the perpetrators doused their front door in Novichok.
4.15pm: Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury city centre, after being poisoned by Novichok nerve agent. The pair spent weeks in a critical condition but have since recovered.
4.45pm: Petrov and Boshirov leave Salisbury back to Waterloo Station.
6.30pm: The pair hop on the London Underground, bound for Heathrow Airport where they take a 10.30pm flight back to Moscow.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14

Prime Minister Theresa May says there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter.

MONDAY, MARCH 26

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that in response to the Salisbury attacks, his government had decided to expel “two Russian intelligence agents working at the Russian embassy’, according to Dutch News.
The two men were arrested for plotting to hack into the computers of a Swiss chemical weapons laboratory testing Novichok nerve agent used in the Salisbury attack. The spies were allegedly found with high tech espionage equipment, designed to spy on the lab and were sent back to Russia but have not been charged.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27

Salisbury resident Charlie Rowley, 45, claims he found a perfume bottle, which allegedly contained Novichok. He takes it home to his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess.

SATURDAY, JUNE 30

Dawn Sturgess a 44-year-old mother-of-three becomes ill after she was exposed to the Novichok nerve agent. It is understood she sprayed herself with the perfume bottle her partner Charlie Rowley brought home.
Charlie Rowley also becomes ill later that day and spent three weeks in hospital.

SATURDAY, JULY 8

Dawn Sturgess dies in hospital.

FRIDAY, MAY 4

Police carry out tests in the hotel room where the two Russian men had stayed. The results showed the presence of Novichok agent. European arrest warrants and Interpol red notices have been issued, meaning the men can be arrested if they leave Russia.

SEPTEMBER 5

British authorities said they had obtained a European arrest warrant for two Russians blamed for a nerve agent attack on a former spy in the city of Salisbury in March. Prosecutors said they wanted Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov for trying to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the chemical Novichok.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

Boshirov and Petrov appear in on the state-funded television channel Russia Today to protest their innocence.
They were interviewed by Margarita Simonyan and it made for some interesting viewing.
When asked what they were doing in the UK, Petrov said they were there for a mix of business and pleasure.
“We planned to go to London and let loose, so to speak, it wasn’t a business trip,” he said.
“We came to Salisbury on the March 3…we tried to walk around the city, but since the city was covered in snow, we were able to only for a half an hour, we got wet”.
Strangely, the pair withdraws into a conversation between themselves when asked if they visited Sergei Skripal’s home when they were in Salisbury.
Petrov: Maybe we went by there.
Boshirov: Do you know where the Skripals’ home is? I don’t.
Petrov: If we would have known where it was.
Boshirov: Maybe we passed by it, maybe we didn’t pass by it, I don’t know, I hadn’t heard. I hadn’t heard this surname, I didn’t know anything about them before this situation, this nightmare with us started.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14

Tensions between Britain and Russia have escalated, with a Kremlin spokesman claiming it would not allow the UK access to the accused spies, according to The independent.
“We don’t organise interviews with citizens of Russia,” Dmitry Peskov said.
“There are mechanisms to provide legal assistance… if the British decide to make an application, we will respond strictly according to law.”

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MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Friday questioned the credibility of the report of UK investigative blogger group Bellingcat on alleged passport data of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who are suspected by London in the Skripal case.

“Was the Federal Migration Service [FMS] database hacked just today? London had made an announcement about Petrov and Boshirov long ago … So, not a single database was hacked before? No, it was not. Because another idea was promoted: these people just do not exist [as the names were said to be fictitious]. This is what the UK police said, posting their photos. Now the people are found. But the main question is different. Why Bellingcat finds it easier to ‘hack the FMS database’ overnight rather than get any evidence of the ‘involvement’ of Petrov and Boshirov in the poisoning?” Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
WATCH Skripal Poisoning “Suspects” Reveal Why They Visited Salisbury

She stressed that the UK investigative blogger group had five months to present to the public photographs, screenshots, videos, anything that would at least raise suspicions against Petrov and Boshirov but failed to do so.

Earlier in the day, Bellingcat and The Insider reported that their joint investigation confirmed, through uncovered passport data, that the two Russian nationals were linked to Russian security services. Such an assumption was explained by the fact that the men’s internal passports under these names were issued in 2009, while no records allegedly exist for these two individuals prior to this year.
READ MORE: ‘We Found Them’: Putin Says Russia Knows Who Salisbury Incident Suspects Are
The report comes a day after the RT broadcaster released the interview with Petrov and Boshirov, in which the men refuted any involvement in the Skripal case, saying that they had no relation to the Russian military intelligence service (GRU) and visited the United Kingdom as tourists. The UK Foreign Office called the interview “obfuscation and lies.”

MOSCOW—British investigative group Bellingcat says two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy were briefly detained in the Netherlands earlier this year.
Bellingcat in its investigation released late Thursday quoted an unnamed security official saying that Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were detained in the Netherlands earlier this year and released without being charged.

Dutch authorities didn’t immediately confirm the report, saying Friday that they were assessing an Associated Press request for comment.
Britain has charged Petrov and Boshirov with trying to kill Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with the Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok.
Media reports last week said two unidentified Russian spies were arrested on Dutch soil and deported, and leaked police information linked the arrests with attempts by them to smuggle hacking equipment to Switzerland.

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The move was aimed at breaking up an operation deeply embedded in small and medium-sized computer networks that could allow the hackers to take control of computers as well as easily steal data.
The Justice Department said the “VPNFilter” botnet was set up by a hacking group variously called APT28, Pawn Storm, Sandworm, Fancy Bear and the Sofacy Group.
The group is blamed for cyber attacks on numerous governments, key infrastructure industries like power grids, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and other bodies.
US intelligence agencies also say it was involved in the operation to hack and release damaging information on the Democratic Party during the 2016 US presidential election, and has engineered a number of computer network disruptions in Ukraine.
“According to cybersecurity researchers, the Sofacy Group is a cyber-espionage group believed to have originated from Russia,” the Department of Justice said in a court filing.
“Likely operating since 2007, the group is known to typically target government, military, security organizations, and other targets of intelligence value, through a variety of means,” it said.
The Justice filing did not say who was behind Sofacy Group, but US intelligence has in the past linked it to Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, and numerous private computer security groups have made the same connection.
In Wednesday’s action, the Justice Department said it had obtained a warrant authorizing the FBI to seize a computer domain that is part of the command and control system of the VPNFilter botnet.
The botnet targets home and office routers, through which it can relay orders from the botnet’s controllers and intercept and reroute traffic back to them, virtually undetected by the users of a network.
In a report released in parallel to the Justice announcement, network equipment giant Cisco said VPNFilter had infected at least 500,000 devices in at least 54 countries.
It has targeted popular router brands like Linksys, MikroTik, NETGEAR and TP-Link.
“The behavior of this malware on networking equipment is particularly concerning, as components of the VPNFilter malware allows for theft of website credentials,” Cisco said.
It also has “a destructive capacity that can render an infected device unusable, which can be triggered on individual victim machines or en masse.”
Both Justice and Cisco said they were releasing details of the problem before having found a strong, permanent fix. Justice said that by seizing control of one of the domains involved in running VNPFilter, it will give owners of infected routers a chance to reboot them, forcing them to begin communicating with the now-neutralized command domain.
The vulnerability will remain, Justice said, but the move will allow them more time to identify and intervene in other parts of the network.
Explore further: Russian hackers infiltrated German ministries’ network: report
© 2018 AFP

An investigation into passport similarities among Russian poisoning suspects reportedly provided insight into whether or not the individuals are linked to Russian security services.
Two men accused of poisoning Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent, have passports that “shared similar features with a number of other files that are believed to be associated with Russian spies,” The Washington Post reported Monday.
Passports of the accused — Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov — reportedly had phone numbers connected to Russian military facilities as well as similar passport numbers and issuing authority, according to a joint investigation from Bellingcat and Russia Insider. The report “appears to have provided European agencies with a number of details,” according to WaPo.
The passports were scrutinized after Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with nerve agent Novichok on March 4 in Salisbury, England. Investigators in the joint report determined that prime suspects Boshirov and Petrov likely used false identities to cover for their involvement in the Skripals’ murders since they found no record of them individuals before 2009. (RELATED: Russian Gov’t Responds To Charges Against Alleged Spy Linked To NRA)
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Sept. 12 that the men were civilians who “traveled to Salisbury for a tourist getaway,” according to the joint report.
Bellingcat and Russian Insider also discovered “top-secret” markings on one of the passports, indicating the unlikelihood that they were simply civilian tourists in the area at the time of the poisoning.
Passports with similar features to Boshirov and Petrov’s documents were also found to be connected to an attempted coup in Montenegro, The Guardian reported Sunday.
Russia’s explanation of the poisoning “was a major disaster,” said former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev, according to CBC News.
“The propaganda machine is not working. It’s mistake after mistake,” he added. Vassiliev is currently a London-based espionage historian.
“We are poisoning ourselves,” Russian economist and politician Grigory Yavlinsky also said, CBC reported.
Norwegian authorities arrested a man Friday on suspicions of being a Russian spy, and Estonia charged at least 12 alleged Russian spies since 2008, according to WaPo. Dutch officials also arrested two men suspected of spying for the Russian government earlier in 2018.
Roughly 200,000 Russians live in London, and more than 700,000 Londoners speak Russian, according to ABC News.
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The relationship of the two countries predates that of the two leaders. And when Merkel and Putin sit down for talks on Saturday in the German government’s villa outside Berlin, they will be influenced by a long history of alienation and rapprochements, limiting the expectations — and possibly the results — of the meeting.
Pressed on the nature of the talks, Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, indicated the leaders would focus on finding common ground on acute international issues, such as Syria, Ukraine and energy. But he declined to provide details.
“Russia is an international actor without whom it is impossible to imagine finding solutions to various problems” in the world, Seibert told reporters in Berlin.
Many experts expect that the meeting will attempt to put the relationship between Berlin and Moscow on more pragmatic ground, but few expect the session to end with strong resolutions or a new strategic partnership.
Here’s a look at some of the issues that define and influence German-Russian ties.
— Are Germany and Russia friends?
The two countries could be described as the ultimate international “frenemies,” with economic, cultural and intellectual ties reaching back centuries. Since the 18th century, they have cycled through a series of conflicts and reconciliations, most recently World War II and the Cold War.
Throughout the Soviet era, Germany was Moscow’s most important trading partner, and many Germans view the strong, positive ties to Moscow as a key contributor to the end of the Cold War and German unification. When the Berlin Wall fell, Germany reached out to Moscow, partly to help former Soviet bloc countries integrate into the European Union, not only strengthening political and economic ties, but also investing in civil society.
But a break in relations that started with the Russian authorities’ repressive reaction to public protests in 2011 and 2012 worsened in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and supported rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Merkel and Putin have maintained regular contact. In May, she visited Putin at his summer residence in Sochi, Russia.
But Susan Stewart, a senior associate with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, cautioned that the leaders’ meeting in Germany should not be viewed as a fundamental shift in German-Russian relations. Instead, it is an indication of the hope that the two sides will be able to reach a compromise on key points, while maintaining their differences over Russia’s role in the conflict in Ukraine.
“They will be trying a two-pronged approach,” Stewart said. “They will try to cooperate on those points where there is a common interest, but we will not see a return to business as usual.”
— What does Germany want from Russia?
Both Germany and Russia have problems that are tied to Syria.
For Merkel, the issue is domestic, as her decision to allow more than 1 million people — most of them refugees from the war in Syria — to apply for asylum in Germany has met increasing resistance from the public and from her own government. For Putin, it is not being quite able to find a solution to Syria’s civil war despite having declared “mission accomplished” on several occasions.
Both leaders could benefit from finding a way to ensure sufficient political stability in Syria to allow Germany to begin encouraging refugees to return, while Putin is seeking support from Berlin and the European Union to help rebuild the country, said Stefan Meister of the German Council on Foreign Relations.
“It is in the domestic political interest of the German government that Syrian refugees be able to return to a stable Syria,” Meister said.
— What does Russia want from Germany?
Germany’s willingness to throw its full weight behind the United States’ decision to impose sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Crimea, its involvement in the pro-Kremlin insurgency in eastern Ukraine and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, took the Russians by surprise.
The move made clear to Russian leaders that the special relationship they believed they had shared with Berlin was over. Soon afterward, Germany found itself in the crosshairs of Russian cyberattacks and a campaign in the Russian news media that caused Germany to plunge in Russian public opinion.
“If you look at the image of Germany — and Merkel in particular — in Russian political discourse, you will see that it really has deteriorated tremendously,” said Sabine Fischer, head researcher on Eastern Europe at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
A survey cited on Friday by Vedomosti, a Russian business daily, reflected this trend, showing approval of the German chancellor among Russians plummeting to 15 percent in August 2016 from 60 percent in February 2011.
But to break out of its international isolation, Russia needs Germany’s support. It hopes to persuade the chancellor not to support a fresh round of sanctions President Donald Trump has threatened to impose over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.
“There is a need for more pragmatic action at the political level,” Fischer said.
— Is Germany a ‘captive of Russia,’ as Trump says?
Germany imports about 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia, according to government statistics. That is more than any other EU country, but less than the 60 percent to 70 percent Trump cited when he accused Germany of being a “captive” of Russia at a NATO summit last month.
“That comment clearly taps into a stereotype in Washington that because of its economic ties, Germany is ‘weaker’ on Russia,” said Derek Chollet, an adviser on security and defense policy with the German Marshall Fund in Washington.
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s close relationship to Putin and his decision to join the board of Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft, has only bolstered that notion. But Merkel has shown a willingness to draw a line, with her decisions to support sanctions against Russia in 2015 and to join the coordinated response to the poisoning in Britain this spring.
“My sense is Merkel, who in her own way makes clear that she understands the Russians and Putin as a type as well as anyone, has no illusions about Russia or Putin and their motives,” Chollet said.
Source: The New York Times
Last Mod: 19 Ağustos 2018, 14:45

Four MORE Russian suspects are yet to be named in the Salisbury Novichok probe amid claims the attack was carried out by a six strong assassination squad named ‘The Cleaners’

• Security sources said the hit squad who targeted the Skripals had six members
• The attempted assassins reportedly had a back-up team to help reconnaissance 
• Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were accused of carrying out the attack 

By Tim Stickings For Mailonline
Published: 22:49 BST, 8 September 2018 | Updated: 09:33 BST, 9 September 2018

Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are seen on CCTV at Salisbury Station on Mar. 3, 2018 . (Metropolitan Police/Reuters)

According to an interview on Russia’s RT television, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were two innocent men in the fitness industry, who were traveling Salisbury, England to visit the town’s famous cathedral.
The U.K. government has said the two men were actually there to poison former Russian spy Sergey Skripal, and his daughter Yulia.
And now, an investigative website says it’s been able to track down the real identity of one of the men.
According to Bellingcat’s research, Boshirov is actually a decorated Russian military intelligence officer named Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga. Russia has denied the allegations.
Christo Grozev is a researcher who led Bellingcat’s investigation. As It Happens host Carol Off spoke to Grozev about how they tracked down Chepiga.
Mr. Grozev, when we saw this RT interview, one of the men introduced himself as Ruslan Boshirov. What have you discovered is his real name?
His name is Anatoliy​ Chepiga. He’s off by one year from the personality he presented, in terms of age. And he’s off by many, many other qualities from the personality that we saw on RT.
You sound very confident. How do you know this is Colonel Chepiga?
We’ve identified him via many, many objective and subjective metrics. First of all, objectively, we got a hold of his original passport file. So we’ve seen the actual passport database with his date of birth, original photo, taken when he was 17, and another one when he got his first passport, and another one when he was 21.
After we were ready with the report and the identification, we actually contacted sources at the British police and secret services to just get a nod, or not a nod, as to our findings — and we got the nod. So we know for sure that’s the one.

You also dug into the file of Colonel Chepiga. He’s a much decorated serviceman. He has received Russia’s highest state award. What do you know about him?
He was born in a tiny village, population less than 300 people, in the farthest corner of the Russian Federation. He went to a military school that was only about 30 miles away from his home village that, at that time, in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, was one of the most elite, or let’s say better-staffed schools, for military education. He got his military education in a special operations unit, training unit, at the school.
Immediately thereafter, he was sent to service in Chechnya, where he amassed a number of awards because, apparently, he was great at what he did as a soldier. And then as a very promising soldier, who had accumulated about 15 awards already, he was sent to GRU school. And GRU school in Moscow is one of the …  it’s called the Academy, the Diplomatic Academy. But, in fact, it’s a spy school and it’s the most elite spy school in Russia.

It sounds [like] you have a lot of information, mostly from open sources. You didn’t go on the ground to seek this out. You did this from a distance. And this is working for your website Bellingcat, which has been accused by the Russian government of being a front for Western intelligence agencies, that you’re fabricating evidence. Why should we trust your conclusions here?
All of our findings in the past have either been proven right or Russia has stopped trying to rebut them because they have no way to rebut them. What we do is very transparent. Almost anybody with the analytic skills can go and replicate that data. We don’t point people to where they can get leaked Russian databases but they’re out there. They’re on the Internet and they’re in torrents. Anybody who spends a week will be able to get them and replicate our findings.
But a number of things have left people scratching their heads about your conclusion. I think you’re scratching your head as well. Why a colonel? Why somebody of such a high rank, and such a decorated man, be sent on this mission to poison people in Great Britain? And also to be so exposed, because you know that when you’re in Great Britain there are a lot of cameras observing. So why such a high-ranking man?
That’s a mystery. We’ve received opinions from two senior Russian officers. Both of them said literally the same thing: “We would have expected somebody with a rank of major or even captain to have done this.”
The fact that they chose a colonel means that the order came at a very high level. Probably one layer below Putin, not Putin himself. But it’s something they did in order to show to Putin that actually they took all the measures and all the precautions to have the highest expertise on the ground, which apparently they didn’t.

This is all around the poisoning of Sergey Skripal and Yulia Skripal — and also, the British citizen Dawn Sturgess. We saw this man who calls himself Ruslan Boshirov and his partner on television in this RT interview. They looked like goofs, didn’t they? You’re laughing, everyone was laughing, including people in Russia. So how is it that somebody of such a high calibre, somebody who is so skilled, would be, first of all, be allowed to be on Russian TV, to be so exposed — and then, to be such a goof?
That’s another mystery. There are at least two hypothesis on this that circulate among informed circles. One is that they were given this order at the last moment, after Putin made that blunder himself, by saying, “Well, we know they’re civilians and I expect them to come and save themselves.”
Bear in mind that people like this are never prepared to go public and to be burned in public. This was a very embarrassing moment for them.
Another hypothesis was that this was punishment for their blunder and their busted job. I don’t believe that’s realistic because whatever they were, they were not traitors. And in the Russian army the only people they punish really are traitors. If anything they would be demoted but not put on purpose to be embarrassed.
Does it appear that this was just a botched operation? I mean, they were successful in reaching these people and poisoning them. But was this a failure?
I think now it has become a failure. Even Russians, the average Russian who believes, if nothing else, Russia is good at spying, now realizes they aren’t good at that either. If you look at Internet memes that spread on the Russian Internet, before they were making fun of the West, of America, of the opposition. Now Russians are making fun of their own intelligence services and that’s unprecedented. I think that is a failure for the regime.
Written by John McGill. Produced by Chris Harbord. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.