REUTERS
Russia's highest award was given reportedly for Mishkin's activities either in Crimea or in relation to former Ukrainian president Yanukovych.
The second suspect in the Skripals poisoning case, Dr. Alexander Mishkin, who acted as "Alexander Petrov," has got awards for participation in operations in Ukraine.
"In the latter part of 2014, President Putin bestowed Alexander Mishkin with the Hero of the Russian Federation Award. People closely familiar with Mishkin's family reported to us that they believe Russia's highest award was given for Mishkin's activities 'either in Crimea or in relation to [former Ukrainian president] Yanukovych,'" the Bellingcat investigative team said in a report.
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Incomplete border crossing data obtained by Bellingcat shows that in the period 2010-2013 Mishkin travelled – under his undercover persona of Petrov – multiple times to Ukraine, and often crossed by car into and back from the self-declared Transnistrian Republic where he stayed for short periods of time. His last trip to Ukraine was in the middle of December 2013.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Bellingcat investigative team reported that it had conclusively identified the second suspect in the Skripals poisoning case who travelled to Salisbury, the place of the Skripals' residence, under the alias Alexander Petrov.
Bellingcat identified "Alexander Petrov" to be in fact Dr. Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin, a trained military doctor in the employ of the GRU.