VLADIMIR Putin’s spies behind the Salisbury Novichok poisonings are also believed to be spearheading a new campaign of sabotage on the West.
Fears have reignited over dangerous Russian interference after a series of mysterious explosions at warehouses and on cargo planes across Europe.
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Suspicions are also growing that Russia may have played a role in the doomed DHL plane disaster this week.
With a new report out of Moscow claiming that a feared pair of GRU military intelligence operatives are recruiting criminals to stage these attacks.
The notorious spy pair of Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin are wanted men in the UK over the use of the deadly Sailsbury nerve agent in 2018.
They are also now the two men said to be behind a spate of recent incidents allegedly linked back to the GRU, claims leading investigative journalist Christo Grozev.
He revealed that both operatives have been recruiting criminals and former special forces operatives to stage clandestine strikes.
They have been targeting countries that are anti Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, Christo says.
He told Russian outlet TV Rain: “The ones who poisoned [ex-spy Sergei] Skripal [in Salisbury]…..they are now recruiting [saboteurs], because they can’t travel the world themselves, they are recruiting.
“Literally Anatoliy Chepiga and his colleague Mishkin, they are now recruiting criminals from all over the world.
“It’s being done from Moscow, from Sevastopol, from St Petersburg.”
The Salisbury suspects are still said to be controlled by military intelligence spymaster General Andrey Averyanov.
The 60-year-old is the deputy head of the GRU and was the mind behind the secret GRU unit 29155 whose officers are accused of committing sabotage and murder across Europe.
Chepiga and Mishkin remain as two of Averyanov’s closets allies in the organisation, Christo claims.
He continued saying that they are both “engaged in training and recruitment spies”.
As Mishkin has also “carried out sabotage on Ukrainian territory” during the war.
Christo says the pair target low level criminals in Eastern Europe and try to turn them into people willing to commit terrorist acts.
It comes as UK spy chief Sir Richard Moore slammed Putin’s spies for their “staggeringly reckless” sabotage attacks in Europe.
Speaking in Paris this week the MI6 boss said the world was “in a more dangerous state” now than at any point in his 37 years as a spy.
He explained: “We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear sabre-rattling to sow fear about the consequences of aiding Ukraine.
“Such activity and rhetoric is dangerous and beyond irresponsible.”
DHL-linked explosions across Europe
Western governments say Moscow may be responsible for a series of fires and acts of sabotage in Europe aimed at destabilising allies of Ukraine.
On July 22, a suspect package caught fire at a DHL depot in Minworth, Birmingham.
Also in July, fires broke out in a container due to be loaded onto a DHL cargo plane in the German city of Leipzig.
Meanwhile, a fire at a transport hub near Jablonow, near Warsaw, Poland took almost two hours to put out.
Polish police arrested four people – and claimed the suspected Russian arson attacks could have been a test run for future attacks on the US.
It is feared the fears were part of an orchestrated campaign organised by Russia‘s military intelligence agency, the GRU.
Moscow, which denies being behind acts of sabotage is suspected to have been behind other attacks on warehouses and railway networks in EU member states this year – including in Sweden and in the Czech Republic.
Western nations including the UK, Britain, and the US, have repeatedly accused Russia of trying to sabotage nations providing military and financial aid to Ukraine.
The Salisbury poisonings
CHARLIE Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, were rushed to Salisbury Hospital after they were found unconscious at a home in nearby Amesbury, Wilts on June 30, 2018.
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