Novichok assassin’s grandfather ‘was a commander in Stalin’s SMERSH unit’ 

Grandfather of Novichok assassin who tried to murder military agent Sergei Skripal ‘was a commander in Stalin’s “death to spies” SMERSH unit’

• Suspects were named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov on Wedensday
• The grandfather of Petrov was revealed to have been in the elite SMERSH unit 
• SMERSH was responsible for hunting down and killing former Russian agents
• Petrov’s uncle was also in the military as a paratrooper and later as a linguist 

The grandfather of one of the novichok spies unmasked by Britain was a commander in Josef Stalin’s notorious ‘death to spies’ SMERSH counter-intelligence, it is claimed today.

Alexander Petrov was named on Wednesday with Ruslan Boshirov as the two agents who poisoned Russian former military agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

There has been speculation that the chemical weapons attack was revenge on Skripal for secretly spying for Britain.

Today’s claim suggests that Petrov’s grandfather Ivan Starchenko served under Stalin as a commander of SMERSH’s 31st shooting brigade on the First Ukrainian Front during the Second World War.

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Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are wanted by British authorities for the Salisbury nerve agent attack in March this year

Petrov’s maternal uncle 66 year old Valery Starchenko (pictured), was a paratrooper and linguist

His grandmother Nadezhda Moroz also worked as clerk-typist for the same rifle division and was awarded a medal ‘For Military Merit’ in November 1943.

The medal was awarded by Major Ivan Ivanovich Starchenko, described as the chief of the Counter-Intelligence Unit of 31st Shooting Division – the man who would become her husband.

SMERSH was set up by Stalin to root out and kill spies.

The claim from investigative reporter Sergey Kanev raises the possibility that Petrov, believed to be aged 39, is from a family of spies engaged in counter-intelligence.

Records show Starchenko was a SMERSH major at the end of the war, later becoming a state security sergeant in Stalin’s counter-intelligence apparatus.

He was awarded a succession of top honours including the Red Star Order, 1943, the Patriotic War Order, grade 1, 1944 and the Red Banner Order, 1945.

He had been educated at the notorious NKVD spy school in Moscow, graduating in 1937 during the Stalin terror.

Another military connection is that Petrov’s maternal uncle 66 year old Valery Starchenko, Ivan’s son, was a paratrooper and linguist, who studied at the famous Ryazan military academy.

Skripal’s brother Valery, who died in a mysterious road accident two years ago, was also a paratrooper.

Valery Starchenko, 66, is the uncle of one of the Novichok poisoning suspects Alexander Petrov

CCTV images of Petrov and Boshirov the day before the attack at the train station 

Theresa May claimed both Petrov and Boshirov are GRU agents and that their mission to plant novichok at the Skripal family home in Salisbury would have been approved at the highest levels in the Kremlin.

There is also evidence that Petrov made a trip to London from 28 February to 5 March 2017, claimed Fontanka based in St Petersburg.

With Boshirov, he also made previous trips together to Europe, according to flight records.

‘From September 2016 to March 2018 they visited Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan and went several times to Paris.’

Boshirov and Petrov are known to have non biometric passports with almost identical numbers, suggesting they were issued two years ago at the same time.

Petrov is believed to have been born in June or July 1979, making him 39.

Boshirov is said to be born on 12 April 1978 making him 40.

He appears to have a job – possibly his cover – as an employee of Microgen, national manufacturer of immune and biological medication.

Microgen reports to the ministry of healthcare and was established in 2003.

It is unclear if such a role would give him any expertise in the dangers of novichok, a nerve agent manufactured in Soviet times as a chemical weapon which was used in the Salisbury attack.

• 
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Yulia Chopivskaya, from Ukraine, aged around 30, was the only Facebook friend of Boshirov

Chopivskaya said she met the Russian for about half an hour at a cafe in Prague around five years ago

The secretive Boshirov had only one friend on a Facebook account, it appears, a glamorous Ukrainian woman.

She has spoken of the ‘nightmare’ caused by the revelation from London that he is a suspected spy who poisoned the Skripals.

Yulia Chopivskaya, from Ukraine, aged around 30, said she met the Russian for about half an hour at a cafe in Prague around five years ago.

He then set up a Facebook account with her as his sole friend.

She denies having seen him since but today has been inundated with demands to know if she is close to the spy.

‘This is a nightmare,’ she said.

‘I haven’t stayed in touch with this person and I don’t know him.

‘I deleted him from my friend’s list.

She said: ‘I don’t know if this is a real last name or not.

‘In 2013 or 2014 I met a guy who introduced himself as Ruslan, it was in Prague.

‘Then he asked how to find me on Facebook and added me there.

‘We chatted for half an hour maximum and said goodbye to each other at that very cafe.

‘Since then I haven’t seen him.’

His Facebook only has a street scene from Prague.

She did not recognise him from the picture released by police in London, she said.

She claimed: ‘I don’t know the person in the photograph.’

Boshirov like Petrov has not spoken on the British allegations.

Anonymous social media channel Nezygar also surmised that Britain had a high-ranking mole inside the GRU, the military intelligence identified by Theresa May as sending two agents to Salisbury to launch a chemical weapons attack.

Novichok poisoning suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are shown on CCTV on Fisherton Road, Salisbury at 1:05pm on 04 March 2018

Citing an intelligence source, Nezygar claimed the most likely explanation of the poisoning in Salisbury was a mafia operation or a British provocation to undermine Russia.

‘Theresa’ May either publicly disclosed information about British intelligence having a high-rank mole within Russian military intelligence who passed confirming information or it is a simple assumption, manipulation, a game of coincidences,’ stated the channel.

The visibility of the Russian pair in Britain and the bungled attack ‘clearly raises suspicions about their professionalism and qualification’, suggesting they are not GRU.

‘The look of the ‘officers’ is more like members of an organised crime community.’

Russia has accused Britain of tinkering with CCTV images of the two alleged spies.

Pictures showed Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov separately walking up steps at Gatwick Airport.

Yet both images are timed at the same moment – 16:22:43.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zhakarova said: ‘Either the date and the exact time were overlaid on the image, or the staff of the Russian GRU learned to walk simultaneously – but their images are captured in two different photographs.’

The pictures released by the Metropolitan Police were being mocked on Russian social media.

One said: ‘Yes, the corridors (at Gatwick Airport) are different.

‘These are corridors at border control.

‘But what an amazing synchronization of the GRU’s staff.’

‘Don’t worry it happens – people will swallow such ‘evidence’,’ said a social media comment mocking Britain over the pictures.  

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