Bellingcat: Russians tried to poison Bulgarian businessman with Novichok for selling arms to Ukraine

Team Bellingcat found that a third Russian GRU officer, who was in the UK at the time of 2018 r. Skripale’s “Novice” poisoning in March, arrived in Bulgaria just a few days before a local entrepreneur and his son were poisoned by an unidentified substance.

Фото: Depositphotos

We managed to convincingly establish that this third, 45-year-old Russian, who traveled under the name "Sergey V. Fedotov", is a high-ranking officer of the GRU. Like the other two suspects in Skripale’s poisoning (Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin), he received a false identity in 2010. There are no earlier records on the existence of this person.

Sergey Fedotov was first identified as a person of interest to the investigation, Russian Internet media "Fontanka".

The Bellingcat team and our investigation partners, The Insider’s Russian edition, tracked Fedotov’s many journeys since his dummy person was created in 2010 g and his last foreign trip to London in March 2018. During these eight years, Fedotov traveled a lot across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, often appearing in “hot spots” just a few days before the events in the news.

Among these trips, Fedotov’s visit to Bulgaria in April of 2015 in particular stands out because his circumstances very much resemble Scripale’s poisoning in March of 2018.

24 April 2015 Mr. "Sergey Fedotov" arrived by flight from Moscow to the Bulgarian seaside resort city of Burgas. He ordered a return flight, which was supposed to fly from the Bulgarian capital Sofia back to Moscow a week later, on April 30. However, Fedotov did not show up for the return flight. Instead, he showed up on the evening of 28 on April at Istanbul Ataturk Airport and at the last moment bought a ticket for a flight to Moscow.

Earlier in the day, Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev was hospitalized after he lost consciousness at a reception he held in Sofia. At about the same time, his son and one of the company’s managers also felt unwell. All three were hospitalized with symptoms of acute poisoning. Emilian Gebrev's condition deteriorated sharply, and he fell into a coma. Doctors suggested that during the day or days before April 28, he came into contact with poison or consumed it inside. However, since the doctors could not establish the poison, they could not speak with confidence about its effect and the nature of the poisoning.

Как сообщил Bulgarian weekly Capital, Emilian Gebrev then asked for help in determining the poison from two leading laboratories that specialize in chemical weapons control. One laboratory, Verifin at the University of Helsinki, conducted a detailed analysis. The laboratory failed to convincingly establish the type of poison, but two different organophosphates were found in the Gebrev urine sample. One of those that they were able to identify turned out to be a powerful pesticide, and the other was impossible to determine using standard chemical weapon analysis tools.

A month after Emilian Gebrev was admitted to hospital, his condition improved significantly and he was discharged. The businessman told Bellingcat that a few days later, at the end of May, he again felt bad, and he was again taken to hospital.

Interestingly, 24 in May 2015 Mr. "Sergey Fedotov" returned from Bulgaria by direct flight from Moscow. He ordered a return ticket for 28 in May 2015, but again did not show up for this flight. 30 May, two days after the flight Fedotov flew without him, he flew to Moscow from Serbia, neighboring Bulgaria.

The events corresponding to the time of Sergey Fedotov’s trips to Bulgaria are similar to the coincidence of the time of his trip to the UK with the reflection of Skripale. Fedotov flew to London from Moscow on the same day as the other two GRU officers (Colonel Chepiga and Dr. Mishkin), albeit on a different flight. He was supposed to fly back in the afternoon of 4 in March of 2018 g, on the day when Creaking (both father and daughter) felt unwell in Salisbury. However, as in the case of Bulgaria, he never got on the return flight, canceling his registration a few minutes before departure. Instead, he flew back to Moscow only a few days later from another European capital.

Gebrev did not know the answer to the question why he could have become the goal of the GRU. Although he is one of the leading entrepreneurs in the Bulgarian defense and defense-export industry, the businessman said he could not imagine that he could become so angry with foreign intelligence that they decided to poison him and his family. At the same time, he admitted that the operation of the special services is the most likely explanation of the mystery of his poisoning, since the three years of investigation of this case by the Bulgarian law enforcement agencies did not give any clues or suspects.

Gebrev called two hypothetical reasons for his poisoning. The first was the export of his company specialized defense equipment to Ukraine. According to him, this transaction was concluded in full compliance with the Bulgarian and European laws and regulations. Another hypothesis, according to Gebrev, could be Russia's interest in the arms factory under its control, which is considered strategically important for Bulgaria and NATO.

Read also on ForumDaily:

The details about the life of Skripale after poisoning became known.

American arrested by the FSB came to Russia for a friend's wedding

American arrested on suspicion of espionage in Moscow

Bellingcat called the real name of the suspect in the attempt to Skripal

Two Russian spies who tried to steal secret chemical weapons data were detained in The Hague

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.