One of the Russian military intelligence officers suspected of poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England last March has been identified as the same man Vladimir Putin honored for helping former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, Paul Manafort's former client, escape to Russia in 2014.
Russian intelligence service (GRU) colonel Anatoliy Chepiga (previously believed to be Ruslan Boshirov), who is one of the suspects in the poisoning of former agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, allegedly headed the operation to evacuate ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from Ukraine following the Euromaidan revolution, investigative journalist Sergei Kanev told Hromadske.
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He and his special forces subdivision were at Yanukovych’s residence Mezhyhirya. He was there, he guarded him. From there they transported him to Crimea and then to Russia,” says Kanev, who was involved in the Bellingcat and The Insider investigation into the Skripal case suspects.
This investigation revealed that the two suspects, who claimed to be visiting Salisbury at the time of the poisoning as tourists, were in fact GRU officers and that Boshirov had even previously been awarded the Hero of Russia award.
According to Kanev, Chepiga was awarded this prestigious title for the evacuation operation. President Putin’s former security guard Alexei Dyumin also received the same award for participating in the same operation, Kanev adds.
The Dossier Center has published an investigative report on the website MBKh Media claiming that Anatoly Chepiga — the supposed real name of Salisbury poisoning suspect “Ruslan Boshirov” — received his Hero of the Russian Federation award for his part in rescuing deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from Ukraine in February 2014. Chepiga allegedly received the honor alongside “Putin’s former personal bodyguard,” Alexey Dyumin, who was recently appointed to serve as governor of the Tula region. Several other members of that special forces group went on to form the “backbone” of the private military company Wagner, according to Dossier Center reporter Sergey Kanev, who also told Hromadske that “everyone says Dyumin is Putin’s successor.”
UPDATED: Skripal Poisoning Suspect Helped Yanukovych Escape to Russia — Journalist (Hromadske)