The two highly trained killers sent by Russia to launch a Novichok assassination attempt on former comrade Sergei Skripal are part of the Kremlin’s sinister GRU.
British military intelligence sources told the Mirror it is feared Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Bochirov have practised nerve agent attacks for months before the Salisbury operation.
We also learned the pair are likely to have been on undercover missions across the West, Europe and Britain several times before they came in March.
The two crack soldiers – recruited from the Red Army and trained for years to gather intelligence on enemy forces and launch kill missions – were tonight in hiding in Russia.
Their commanders are thought to control Russia’s nerve agent stockpile and its nuclear capability, contained in a briefcase carried by military chiefs and President Vladimir Putin.
Despite the Kremlin’s denials it is believed the pair – whose names are aliases – will have been hailed heroes after successfully escaping.
In a blistering condemnation of the Novichok attack Prime Minister Theresa May highlighted GRU involvement in an attempted coup in Montenegro in 2016.
During the mission as many as 50 GRU men sneaked into the country from Serbia and backed an unsuccessful attempt to kill the Prime Minister.
The GRU is also suspected of being behind the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner MH17 as it flew over East Ukraine in 2014, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members.
One ex-British military intelligence source told the Mirror: “They almost killed Sergei Skripal in an operation in which they did little to hide their movements.
“It is a classic GRU operation, not terribly subtle, but bold and it carried a message that says to all of Putin’s enemies, ‘You are not safe anywhere – we will hunt you down and get to you eventually’.
“This was a political offensive operation and it is deeply worrying that they didn’t try to hide it.
“They have tested our reaction, gambled against Britain having support and got that wrong but they know more about our strengths and weaknesses – so it was a success. There is little doubt the GRU has been practising this method of using nerve agents to kill, among other techniques, in less carefully policed arenas than Britain, like Syria and perhaps even the Ukraine.
“We should be deeply concerned that the GRU appears to have control of Russia’s Novichok supply as well. It could mean the domestic security forces have relinquished control of it.”
Intelligence analyst Bruce Jones added: “These two were probably expendable as the operation was almost in plain sight and not without its risks but the GRU were striking against one of their own.
“Sergei Skripal, as a former GRU officer, is regarded as a traitor because he spied for MI6 so in some ways this operation was a matter of honour.
“Despite not killing him, they have got away with it. It is possible they were promised medals and it is likely they have operated in the West before, possibly even Britain, because of the confidence they show in getting about.
“They will not regard the operation as a failure because they tested Britain’s security, our resolve in reacting to it and how much support we have. They have answered all of that now.”
The GRU – the Main Intelligence Branch of the Russian Armed Forces – has launched daring attacks across the world, even in the US.
Its commander Igor Korobov has been hit by US Treasury sanctions for two years and chief of the Army Valery Gerasimov has been hit by EU sanctions following his involvement in the Crimea invasion in 2014.
The assassins are part of Russia’s largest foreign spy presence with GRU declaring senior officers in place in embassies, some of whom have been sent back to Moscow.
Like many GRU operatives they are thought to be battle-hardened, possibly in Chechnya and Syria. Like the British equivalent, the Army’s Intelligence Corps, GRU troops are trained in Signals Intelligence, spying on the enemy before and during wartime and recruiting foreign agents.
It is believed these skills were used to watch the Skripals before the attack.
The GRU, Glavnoe Razvedyvatel’noe Upravlenie, is highly skilled at cyber warfare and 18 of its operatives were recently accused by American security officials of having hacked into the US election. But whereas in warfare our SAS and SBS commandos take over to launch attacks behind enemy lines, many within the GRU are also killers.
Along with Russian special forces the Spetsnaz, the GRU in 1979 played a key role when Russia invaded Afghanistan, killing its President to destabilise the country, and units are deeply embedded in Syria and Iraq.
In 2014 the Mirror saw GRU and Spetsnaz soldiers in Crimea when they invaded overnight, as Russia denied it had troops on the ground.
They launched missions against Chechen rebels throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, killing militant leaders and infiltrating their ranks.
The GRU is a 10,000-strong force, many of whom have desk jobs but many, despite being soldiers, operate in plain clothes and are skilled in martial arts and assault weapons.
The spy agency, which goes back to months after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, has become skilled at “hybrid warfare” – destabilising countries with cyber warfare and “fake news” that will discredit the West.
For several years before Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, GRU troops infiltrated the previously Ukrainian territory spreading anti-western propaganda through the media.
Then, almost overnight, TV stations were overwhelmed, newspapers shut down and Russian tanks rolled over the border. In an assault with the navy, Russian troops appeared all over the Crimea, meeting little resistance.
Bruce Jones added: “Putin wanted that operation to be a complete success. There was some resistance. As a consequence some of its more senior officers disappeared.”
Message from Moscow or searching question?
By Peter Pomerantsev
Author and Russia Expert
Why did Putin do it? Why quite so blatantly send killers to take out a former Russian spy of little importance?
Was it to send a message to other whistle blowers?: “Forget about speaking to MI6, the Brits are no James Bonds, they can’t protect you.”
This would make some sense. As the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian interference in Donald Trump’s election deepens in the US, as more Russians are turned to tell the truth about Moscow’s Olympic doping scandals and money laundering, no doubt the Kremlin wants to send a message to those inside its own system to keep schtum.
But there could also another reason: to try and gauge whether Britain, so long the vital connection between Europe and the US, is now the weakest link.
If that’s the question Putin is asking – what will he have learned? There’s been a touch of unity in Europe. Germany and others expelled Russian diplomats.
But Putin would have also noted that in her recent keynote speech, the head of the European Commission Foreign Service never even mentioned Russia.
And the US? Trump skirted round the issue at his summit with Putin in Helsinki – before his government threatened stronger sanctions.
Does this mean Putin miscalculated? Not entirely. He’s learned where Trump’s influence ends. Also, the sanctions are so out of kilter with what Europe has done it causes more confusion in the thing once known as “the West”. As it’s this alliance which is being put under pressure, one would hope the UK has prepared a more coordinated response. This is a test for what role Britain can still play in world affairs.
■ Peter Pomerantsev is the author of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia