Solberetsky.

The Bellingcat and The Insider were able to confirm the

involvement of Petrov and Boshirova to the special services
[Солберецкие. The Bellingcat и The Insider удалось подтвердить причастность Петрова и
Боширова к спецслужбам]

A joint investigation by The Bellingcat and The Insider made it possible to establish that Alexander
Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, suspected by Britain of Skripale’s poisoning, are indeed officers of the
Russian special services. This is confirmed by a number of documents, as well as direct and indirect
evidence. Today we are publishing the first part of the investigation.

“Not to give information. Top secret"

If you look at the data of Alexander Petrov in the FMS database, it seems that he was "born" in 2009.
That is, according to his passport, he was born on July 13, 1979 in the city of Kotlas, but in fact there
are no traces of his presence in this world until 2009, when he was issued this passport. In the usual
FMS files on “mere mortals” there are notes on the receipt of other national and international passports,
the facts of registration at different addresses. In the file Petrov nothing of this. In 2009, he received his
passport “instead of the spoiled one”, and in the file there is the number of this “spoiled” passport,
which has never existed in nature.

On the file with passport data there is a “no information to give” stamp:

And the biography file is empty: except for the “not to give out information” stamp, there is only the
signature “S.” (top secret).
It is curious that at the place of residence of Alexander Petrov, another person lived with the surname
Petrov, whose passport details differ.

Strange passports
According to passenger check-in data (the document is available to The Bellingcat and The Insider),
the numbers of Boshirova and Petrov passports differ by only one digit (Boširov’s passport ends in
1294, Petrov’s - 1297). And in the database of the FMS, where the “mere mortals” passports are
indicated, for some reason, Borshirov and Petrov do not have these passports.
By the way, from the registration data it follows that both “tourists” bought tickets one day before the
departure, 1st day (there is no reservation data in the database, which happens when buying a ticket and
registering is done in one session, and this is possible only one day before departure) : it is contrary to
their words that the trip was planned in advance. Whence such a rush, we can assume: a little earlier
that day, tickets to London were bought by Julia Skripal. This is hardly a coincidence: it is possible that
the "tourists" felt that this could somehow affect their plans, and decided to hurry.

No less interesting and Russian passports. Firstly, they were issued by the FMSA 770001 in the city of
Moscow - “mere mortals” do not receive passports there. Passports in this department of the Federal
Migration Service are received either by privileged persons for a bribe (for them it is synonymous with
“criminal” license plates) or by representatives of law enforcement agencies. For example, the former
deputy chairman of Rosneft, Eduard Khudainatov, and media manager Sergey Lisovsky (a member of
the General Council of United Russia), now arrested by the deputy head of the logistics department of
the Interior Ministry in Moscow, Colonel Alexander Emets, ex-chief of the Central Directorate of
Threat Service Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Trubnikov and other
significant persons. There are among the recipients of passports in this FMS and strange persons with a
secret biography who are not present in any social networks: probably the same “tourists” as Petrov and
Boshirov.
It is also interesting that if you change the last digit in the passport of Petrov or Boshirov, then you will
again find people with strange profiles, with incomplete addresses (for example, without an apartment)
- and who are not in any social networks and databases.
The preparation of the material was attended by the journalist of the Center "Dossier" Sergey Kanev

Solberetskys, part two. Adventures of "tourists" from the Ministry of

Defense
[Солберецкие, часть вторая. Приключения «туристов» из Министерства обороны]

In the first part of the investigation, Bellingcat and The Insider managed to find in the passport data of
Alexander Petrov (one of Skripaley suspected of poisoning) indications of his belonging to special
services, and also to find out that the passports of Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov differ only in
one last digit. In this part, we publish new documentary evidence of the belonging of Petrov and
Boshirov to the GRU, as well as some unexpected information about their previous “tourist” trips.

Traces of the Ministry of Defense

In the passport data of Boshirov from the single information system “Russian passport”, as expected,
the same note was found as that of Petrov - “ss” (“top secret”), explaining why not all documents are
present in fact . And on the “Not to Give Information” stamp there was the same telephone number -
“195-79-66”:
An extract from the Unified State Telephone Directory confirms that this is the Ministry of Defense
number:
Moreover: it is not just the Ministry of Defense, but the complex of buildings on the Khoroshevskoye
Highway, where the GRU is located (now - the Directorate General Staff of the Russian Armed
Forces). If you change the last digit in the indicated number, you can find, for example, the telephone
of the magazine “Foreign Military Review”, located nearby.
But the most interesting point: the foreign passports of BOSHIROV and Petrov are close to the
numbers not only among themselves, but also with other GRUshniki. If their numbers end at 294 and
297, then another previously illuminated Grushkin Edward Shirokov (Shishmakov) has the same
passport number, but with the end of 323, that is, with a difference of 25 and 28 issued passports,
respectively. Apparently, the GRU officers really do receive a special series of passports - and if this is
the case, then anyone who has access to the passport database can reveal all the employees of the
General Directorate General Staff. A more casual approach to national security is unimaginable.
Tourist routes
Dutch law enforcement sources told The Insider and Bellingcat (without specifying the dates of the
incident) that Petrov and Boshirov had previously been arrested in the Netherlands. The source also
hinted that you can learn more about this detention, "if you read the media." The press has only one
episode of this kind: this year (supposedly in the spring, but the exact time is not reported), the
prosecutor's office of the Netherlands detained two Russians on their way to a laboratory in the Swiss
city of Spitz, which today is known for helping to investigate chemical attacks in Syria and poisoning
The fiddle and his daughter. The detainees had the technical means to break into the computer network.
Moreover, according to investigators, these same people participated in the hacking of the anti-doping
agency WADA (WADA itself stated that the hacking group Fancy Bear was responsible for hacking,
where, as confirmed recently, employees of two military units of the GRU are numbered 26265 and
74455) .
The arrest implies that they were deported from the country, and it is unlikely that after that they could
use a Schengen visa. Petrov’s last trip to the Schengen zone was Switzerland: in late January - early
February of this year. That is, if Petrov and Boshirov were indeed arrested, according to the source,
then this happened precisely during this trip. Apparently, they were detained on the territory of Holland
and transferred to the Swiss justice, as the case concerned the Swiss laboratory. This does not mean that
they were exactly the two arrested cyber attack specialists about whom the press wrote, but such a
coincidence in time and place could not be accidental - so if there was an arrest and truth, then they
acted in at least one group with “ crackers. "
If Petrov and Boshirov had already been "spotted", could the GRU send them to a new business? This
does not sound very believable, but such precedents were quite recent: in October 2014, Poland
expelled the Russian Grushnik — the very Eduard Shishmakov, whose passport we quoted above —
after trying to recruit the Polish military, and in 2016 it was also — but under the name of Edward
Shirokov - went to Serbia to organize a coup in Montenegro (and, by the way, failed again). Thus,
strange as it may sound, the GRU sometimes uses the already failed agents.
But how, after initiating a criminal case, Petrov and Boshirov then got to the UK? Even assuming that
the Dutch source is mistaken and they have not been previously arrested, it is still strange. After all, to
get a business visa to the UK, it must be confirmed by various documents, including proving the
existence of a business, and Petrov and Boshirov, for obvious reasons, would not have passed such a
check. The Insider and Bellingcat have an answer to this question, and it’s not very pleasant for the
UK, but this is in the next part of our investigation.
For now - let's take a closer look at Petrov’s trips.
Why "tourists" flew to Switzerland since November 2017, now more or less clear. The reason for
Petrov’s visit to the Netherlands in 2016 is not so obvious, but there is also an interesting coincidence
here: he was there during the referendum on association with Ukraine. This question was so painful for
the Kremlin that Moscow, in addition to conventional means (hacker attacks, fake news stuffing),
conducted a whole special operation: on the territory of Holland, on behalf of the “Ukrainian refugees”
several Russians had campaigned against the association with Ukraine. At the same time, they
distributed a fake video with threats allegedly from the battalion "Azov" - and the video was created by
the famous factory of trolls Yevgeny Prigogine. It is these days Amsterdam decided to visit Alexander
Petrov.

There is one more interesting trip: on July 11, 2016, Petrov drove to Kazakhstan on a long-distance
bus, and Beijing indicated as much the direction of his trip. There is no stranger way to get to Beijing
and imagine - but, most likely, he was not going to any Beijing, as he was returning to Moscow on July
26 from Tel Aviv. Apparently, the goal of Petrov was some of the countries of Central Asia or the
Middle East, and he wanted to get there not in the most conspicuous way.
Solberetskys, part three. "BOSHIROV" turned out to be "Hero of
Russia", Colonel of the GRU Anatoly Chepiga
[Солберецкие, часть третья. «Бошировым» оказался «Герой России», полковник ГРУ
Анатолий Чепига]

The Insider and Bellingcat succeeded in identifying Ruslan Boshirov, one of two GRU officers accused
of Skripale poisoning. It turned out to be the colonel of the GRU and the Hero of Russia Anatoly
Chepiga.

Who is Anatoly Chepiga

Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga was born on April 5, 1979 in the small village of Nikolaevka on the
Russian-Chinese border. At the age of 18, he entered the prestigious Far Eastern Higher All-Arms
Command School (DVOKU), located just 40 km from his home. The school was trained, including
officers of the GRU special forces. Chepiga graduated with honors and went to serve in the 14th
brigade of the GRU special forces . The unit of Chepiga (74854, previously - 20662) played an
important role in the second Chechen war. And in December 2014, Vladimir Putin, by his decree,
awarded Chepiga the title of “Hero of Russia”.
Here is how the "exploits" of Chepigi are described on the website of the DOSAAF branch of the
Ivanovsky District of the Amur Region:
“You can also become a hero in our seemingly peaceful time. Native with. Nikolayevka, a graduate of
the 2001 PARTNERSHIP Chepiga Anatoly Vladimirovich, was on a business trip in Chechnya three
times, has more than 20 awards and distinctions. And in December 2014, Colonel A. Chepige. awarded
the title of Hero of the Russian Federation for the fulfillment of the peacekeeping mission . ”

The “peacekeeping mission” implied, apparently, the invasion of Ukraine (the Russian military
operation in Syria had not yet begun) - and indeed, the Chepiga unit was seen near the border of
Ukraine at the end of 2014. However, it is not yet clear exactly which feats this “Hero of Russia” has
accomplished. One way or another, DOCHOK in golden letters knocked out his name at the monument
to Rokossovsky.
Here is the whole monument:

His alter-ego "Ruslan Boshirov" Chepiga received after moving to Moscow, where he, apparently,
graduated from the Military Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, called the
"conservatory" in GRAND slang.
How did you discover Chepig
The Insider and Bellingcat searched for Boshirov among graduates of military schools, where GRU
staff are trained for operations abroad and intensively teach a foreign language. One of such schools is
the TWICE. Knowing roughly the age of Boshirov, The Insider and Bellingcat looked at photos of
graduates from 2001–2003. On one of them, made in Chechnya, we managed to find someone remotely
resembling "Boshirov":

Although it is difficult to draw any conclusions from this photo, it has become an additional reason to
continue the search for “Boshirov” among the graduates of the PARTICLES. Further searching was
helped by the site of the school itself, which published a list of its graduates who became “Heroes of
Russia”. One of them — Anatoly Chepiga — could have been “Boshirov” by age and, judging by
information from open sources, served in Chechnya, as did the man in the photo above. His name was
found in one of the databases, where the address of Chepigi in Khabarovsk in 2003–2005 coincided
with the address of the military unit corresponding to the 14th GRU special forces brigade: this also
increased the likelihood that “Boshirov” and Chepig were the same person .
An extract from the Russian Passport system in 2014 confirmed this hypothesis.

Solberetsky, part 4. A military doctor from the GRU, Alexander Mishkin

(Petrov) received the Hero Star and an apartment in Moscow
[Солберецкие, часть 4. Военный врач из ГРУ Александр Мишкин («Петров») получил
Звезду Героя и квартиру в Москве]

In the previous part of the joint investigation, Bellingcat and The Insider reported the real name and
true biography of “Ruslan Boshirov”: they were the colonel of the GRU, the hero of Russia Anatoly
Chepiga. Now we were able to establish the name and biography of the second defendant in the
poisoning of Skripale, hiding under the name "Alexander Petrov".
Petrov turned out to be a military doctor Alexander Mishkin, also an employee of the Main Directorate
of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces (previously GRU). From the hands of Vladimir Putin,
Mishkin received the Star of a Hero of Russia (as well as Chepiga for Ukraine). As it turned out, both
Mishkin and Chepiga simultaneously with the Hero's Star received expensive apartments in Moscow
from the state in 2014.
The merits of the young doctor
Alexander Mishkin was born on July 13, 1979 in Loig. Loiga is a small village of a rural type,
forgotten by God, and also by the federal and even regional authorities somewhere in the marshes
between the Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions. The closest city to Loig is Kotlas (hence, obviously, this
city is in the passport in the name of Petrova). You can get to Loigu on your own - on foot or by car -
only in winter (no one is afraid of snow here, unlike Salisbury). The rest of the time, the only link with
the outside world is the railway. Nominally there are two of them: the high-speed branch of the
“Russian rut” and one of the longest narrow gauge railways in Russia. The latter almost does not work,
because it is plundered.
Instead of sidewalks in Loig - wooden gati, the most popular technique - karakat. According to the
local administration, in September 2018, exactly 1111 people are registered in Loig, a little more than
700 actually live.

One of those living there is Nina Fedorovna Mishkina, who came to Loyga with the first wave of
settlers in the early 1950s and is the universal favorite and part-time grandmother of Alexander. Nina
Fedorovna - doctor, founder of the local first-aid post. Apparently, she was a good doctor - the villagers
in a conversation with The Insider correspondent Yuri Knyazev recalled that she never refused patients,
was gentle with them and knew how to diagnose illnesses. Since the late 90s she is retired, and on
September 25 of this year she turned 90.
“The very first Nina Fyodorovna congratulated her grandson on her birthday,” says a close friend
Mishkina. “She told everyone about it, she is very proud of Sasha.”
Sasha was born and grew up in Loig in the family of the youngest son Nina Feodorovna Eugene and
his wife Tatiana. Together with his sister Olga, who was several years younger than him, the future
GRU officer went to kindergarten and school, and then moved with his family to the nearby village of
Lomovatka, where his father got a job as director of a timber processing plant.
“Yes, this is Sasha,” says one of Nina Fedorovna’s neighbors, after seeing a photo of Alexander Petrov
from the Russian Passport system. - We lived nearby, Sasha always played with my children. After he
went to study and returned to visit his grandmother, he always came to us. He was very attached to his
grandmother, they were like mother and son. ” “This is exactly Sasha,” confirms another acquaintance
of the Mishkin family, having seen the face of Alexander Petrov on the frame from an interview with
RT. - Where did you get this picture? You will not find more information on it, it is classified, ”the
interlocutor of The Insider believes.
It was not possible to talk to Nina Fedorovna herself - she was taken to Lomovatka (possibly, waiting
for the arrival of journalists).

“This is exactly Sasha,” confirms an acquaintance of the Mishkin family, having

seen the face of “Alexander Petrov” on the screen from an interview with RT

As Nina Fedorovna’s acquaintances believe, the grandson of Sasha continues the glorious medical
tradition of the Mishkin family and serves as a military doctor in Murmansk. Obviously, Sasha
succeeded in his career - a couple of years ago, President Vladimir Putin awarded Sasha with a star of
the Hero of Russia, which everyone in Loig knows about, and some even tell in reverent whispers.
“Nina Fedorovna has a photo in which Putin presents the order to Sasha and shakes his hand. She is
very proud of her, but she doesn’t show everything and never gives in to her hands, ”another close
friend Mishkina shares with The Insider. “Once, when he arrived, I asked what his specialty was. Sasha
said that I do not know such a specialty. I myself am a doctor, but when he called her, I really did not
know and could not even remember. He explained that this is somehow connected with submarines. ”
(Mishkin's specialty is hypobaric medicine, which will be discussed below).
“We are just wondering why Sasha received the title of Hero of Russia, we have military secrets here,
the information is classified,” said one of the residents of the village. “But it seems to be one of two
things: either for the Crimea, or for Yanukovych.”

A student whom “nobody remembers”

In Loig and Lomovatka, Mishkin lived until graduation, and in 1995 he moved to Petersburg. Soon
(apparently, in 1997), he entered the Kirov Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg (Military
Medical Academy), where he studied at 4 faculties preparing doctors for the navy. His face in a
conversation with The Insider and Bellingcat was remembered by two other graduates of VM Med, but
they were not his classmates. According to one of these graduates, Mishkin graduated from the Medical
Academy in 2003, but all graduates of this faculty surveyed by The Insider (both in 2003 and other
years) consistently answered: "With us, he definitely did not study." After some time, this riddle was
solved: several sources at once in the Military Medical Academy reported that two weeks ago
Mishkin’s classmates had been phoned and told to remain silent.
Mishkin in the GRU
There is little information about the activities of Mishkin until 2016: it is known that in 2010–2013 he
had been to Ukraine and Transnistria more than once (where he had lingered for quite a while). His last
trip to Ukraine took place in the middle of December 2013 and was rather mysterious: then he crossed
the border with Transnistria at 16:12 by car and returned 6 minutes later. The next day he flew by plane
from Kiev to Moscow. On travels Mishkin-Petrov in Europe (and not only) since 2016 The Insider
reported in the previous part of his investigation .
Until the beginning of September 2014, Mishkin was officially registered at 76, Khoroshevskoe
Highway (address of the GRU headquarters). Until about the same time (until August 2014), Chepiga
was registered there. Of course, this does not mean that Mishkin and Chepiga physically lived in the
office of the GRU - only that their real place of residence was classified. In the case of Chepiga, it is
known that his apartment was located in a building belonging to the Ministry of Defense, where, in
addition to him, dozens of other GRU officers lived. Apparently, Mishkin also lived in similar
apartments.
In the fall of 2014, both Mishkin and Chepiga receive new apartments in Moscow from the state: the
market value of Mishkin’s apartment in Cheryomushki (75 square meters) is 24 million rubles, and the
hundred-meter apartment of Chepiga on Akademichesky - as much as 30 million rubles. (or $ 650
thousand at the rate of that time). The fact that apartments were received precisely from the state is
confirmed by official extracts from the registry, from which it follows that Mishkin and Chepiga were
the first owners of these apartments and received them under a transfer agreement (that is, privatized).
Their cost clearly exceeds the income of military personnel. Considering that both Mishkin and Chepig
received from Putin the star of the Hero of Russia for certain feats in Ukraine, they probably got
apartments as the material part of the reward (this is a fairly standard practice). The fact that Chepiga
received an apartment from the state, was previously reported by Kommersant with reference to his
fellow villagers.

How Bellingcat and The Insider Found Mishkin

When The Insider and Bellingcat began to search for Mishkin, all that was known was the data from
the passport file addressed to Alexander Petrov, which, like his last name, could be fake. British media,
however, with reference to its sources reported that the name Alexander was genuine. People from the
Arkhangelsk region also confirmed that the “Petrov” dialect was quite natural for Kotlas (which was
listed in the passport as his hometown). This suggested that some other data from the passport file
could either be true or close to the truth. As was already known from previous investigations (for
example, in the case of Eduard Shishmakov-Shirokov), GRU officers, receiving a passport cover, can
save the real name and date of birth.
Bellingcat has a number of databases in many regions, but the difficulty lies in the fact that
Aleksandrov Evgen'evich, born on July 13, 1979 in Russia, is probably a lot. The Insider and Bellingcat
suggested that the city may be real, indicated in the passport file as the place where the previous
passport was received - St. Petersburg. Alexander Evgenievich, with the date of birth on July 13, 1979,
turned out to be only one in Petersburg - and he was Mishkin.
Mishkin's address in the database was designated as “374 Street” (in this database, he means
Academician Lebedev Street), 12, apartment 30.
The database also had a telephone number, on which it was possible to find seven more people
registered at the same address, from which it followed that it was a communal apartment. Most of the
tenants of this apartment were between the ages of 18 and 24, which seemed logical enough - students
used communal apartments in the 2000s, and right in front of this house is a hostel of the Medical
Academy and the Academy itself is also nearby.

Two residents of this apartment were found in social networks, where they are designated as graduates
of the Medical Academy. Mishkin himself was not found in social networks, but, based on the data, it
seems very likely that he also studied at the Military Medical Academy.
Mishkin showed up in the telephone base, but already as a resident of Moscow:

Search by name and phone issued it in the database on car insurance as the owner of the Volvo XC90.
Separately, looking at the history of the car, I managed to find that it was registered in St. Petersburg in
2012, and then passed into the possession of a person registered in the Khoroshevsky district:

In the more recent database of car insurance, the address of the owner is specified more specifically,
Khoroshevskoe Highway 76, the address of the headquarters of the GRU.

After this discovery, The Insider and Bellingcat began the search described above for acquaintances
with Mishkin at Military Academy, and two graduates confirmed that they were recognizing the person
who studied at Military Medical Academy in the portrait of Petrov.

Passport photo analysis

A key evidence that Petrov and Mishkin are one and the same person could have been a copy of
Mishkin's passport. But Bellingcat's access to the passport database was complicated after the
publication of the first parts of the investigation. But Bellingcat managed to get access to the scanned
version of the passport itself through a Russian source, who asked not to give him any instructions. The
data in the copy of the passport coincided with the data found in several other databases. The source
also provided a copy of another Mishkin document with a photograph.
To independently verify the similarity of the photographs (Mishkin's photo from the national passport,
dated 2001, and Petrov's photo from the passport, dated 2016), Bellingcat and The Insider turned to
Professor Yugaylu from Bradford University, an expert in visual computing ) and simulations of age
changes. The professor came to the unequivocal conclusion that these two photos belong to the same
person, taking into account the 15-year difference in age:
Having received confirmation through a copy of the passport, The Insider and Bellingcat sent their
correspondent to Loigu and received the report described above.