The British police have accused a third Russian of poisoning former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018. The name os the suspect is Denis Sergeev, a GRU General, The Independent said.
According to law enforcement agencies, Sergeev was working under pseudonym Sergei Fedotov. He commanded two other GRU officers. The charges that British prosecutors have brought down on Sergeev are the same – attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm to police officer Nick Bailey, and using chemical weapons.
It was reported that Sergeev flew from Moscow to London's Heathrow Airport on March 2, 2018, where he landed about four hours earlier than his colleagues. He flew back to Moscow on March 4 at 13:45 – the day when Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned.
According to British authorities, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned on March 4, 2018 with a Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok. The operation was conducted with the participation of GRU officers (GRU are the Russian initials for the Main Intelligence Directorate).
London believes the Salisbury attack was conducted with the approval from Russia's top leadership. Later, the names of alleged poisoners were named – Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
Moscow denies any involvement in the incident with the poisoning of the Skripals. According to Bellingcat and The Insider (both are included by Russia's Ministry of Justice in the register of media performing the functions of a foreign agent), Boshirov is in fact a career officer of the Russian military intelligence, whose real name is Anatoly Chepiga, whereas Petrov is a military doctor and GRU officer Alexander Mishkin.
The Minister-Counselor (a diplomatic position, second person in the embassy) of the Russian Embassy was summoned to the British Foreign Office on September 21 to discuss the Salisbury incident. This was announced by the press secretary of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.