A leak of Russian government data about the suspects in the Salisbury poisoning may provide a rare insight into how Russia’s military intelligence agency provides cover identities for its agents abroad.
Investigative journalists have unearthed what appears to be a series of passports with similar numbers belonging to suspected Russian intelligence officers, including the Salisbury suspects Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov.
The passport holders include a former Russian military attache who was expelled from Poland for espionage in 2014 and is alleged to be tied to an attempted coup in Montenegro.
Other men with similar passport numbers identified by the St Petersburg-based Fontanka news site listed their address as Khoroshevskoye Shosse 76 B, the Moscow headquarters of Russia’s Main Directorate, the military agency often referred to as the GRU.
Their travel records, as reported by Fontanka, could be tied to recent diplomatic incidents in Europe and, in at least one case, matched the details of a foreign trip taken by Vladimir Putin.
If the reporting is confirmed, it would be a major blunder by the intelligence agency, allowing any country to check passport data for Russians requesting visas or entering the country against a list of nearly 40 passport files of suspected GRU officers.
Putin has said publicly that Petrov and Boshirov are civilians and have no connection to the Russian government. But passport information first published by Bellingcat and the Russian investigative site the Insider showed that Petrov’s file was marked “top secret” and instructed officials to “give no information” and telephone a number belonging to the Russian military base on Khoroshevskoye Shosse in Moscow.
The passport information was retrieved from a Russian government database, the sites said. It was not clear how they gained access to that database, although some Russian passport data has been leaked online before.
Other elements of Petrov and Boshirov’s passport information also indicated they are not ordinary citizens. Both men had received their passports from an elite passport authority, 777001, which Bellingcat said was “exclusively used for state VIPs and intelligence officers”.
The two men had virtually identical passport numbers, separated by only three digits. Others in that series included Col Eduard Shishmakov, a Russian military officer who had been expelled from Poland for spying and was alleged to have wired money to Serbia via Western Union in preparation for an abortive coup in neighbouring Montenegro.
Fontanka managed to speak with one man named on the list of close to 40 passports, who said he was retired and denied being in military intelligence despite listing GRU headquarters as his address.
Other men on the list, such as Petrov and Boshirov, appeared “to have come from nowhere”, having no social media accounts or property history in Russia, but had nonetheless managed to travel, Fontanka said.
A civil conversation…
… has never been more important in American public life. Guardian journalism, driven by fact-based reporting, offers an independent voice of reason at a time when the national conversation is divisive and embittered. At a time of acrimony, America is in need of public civility. For 200 years Guardian journalism has been committed to giving expression to hope, not hate, and choosing fairness over fear.
More people are reading and supporting The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism than ever before. And unlike many news organisations, we have chosen an approach that allows us to keep our journalism accessible to all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford. But we need your ongoing support to keep working as we do.
The Guardian will engage with the most critical issues of our time – from the escalating climate catastrophe to widespread inequality to the influence of big tech on our lives. At a time when factual information is a necessity, we believe that each of us, around the world, deserves access to accurate reporting with integrity at its heart.
Our editorial independence means we set our own agenda and voice our own opinions. Guardian journalism is free from commercial and political bias and not influenced by billionaire owners or shareholders. This means we can give a voice to those less heard, explore where others turn away, and rigorously challenge those in power.
We need your support to keep delivering quality journalism, to maintain our openness and to protect our precious independence. Every reader contribution, big or small, is so valuable. Support The Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
