Media finds additional links between Skripal’s poisoning suspects and Russian Defense Ministry
The documents related to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, which were previously published by the news outlet, Insider and investigative group Bellingcat provided new evidence of the involvement of the Russian special services in Skripal's poisoning case.
Journalists from the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta analyzed the documents and found new references to Russian intelligence services in the investigation materials. One of these was an annotated number, “195-76-66” next to the note “do not give information.”
According to the Russian media, the numbers could be a Moscow phone number belonging to the Foreign Military Overview magazine, which is under the Russian Defense Ministry. The number could also be related to the automatic telephone station 195 in the Khoroshevsky district of Moscow where the headquarters of the Main Intelligence Directorate is located.
During a conversation with the newspaper, a former special services employee suggested that the number in the document is a phone number for the Human Resources Department of the place where Skripal’s suspected would-be killers, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, work.
The documents published earlier also contain an analysis of the dossier of the Federal Migration Service where Petrov obtained a passport in 2009 “instead of his spoiled one.” The Migration Service did not obtain information about his previous passports and other data that are usually requested from the owners of Russian passports.
Petrov’s passport paperwork is stamped with “do not provide information” and “classified.” Bellingcat’s sources say it shows his affiliation with intelligence services. According to this data, Petrov was born in Kotlas in 1979 and has lived in Moscow in the Chertanovo district since 2007.
BBC journalists found in the Federal Service of State Registration, Land Register and Mapping that last year, Petrov indeed owned the apartment in Chertanovo but his name, surname and patronymic and age do not match the data of “the correct” Petrov. The apartment is registered to another person now.