A third man suspected of involvement in the nerve agent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury has been identified as a high-ranking Russian military intelligence agent.
Investigative website Bellingcat named Denis Vyacheslavovich Sergeev as the third man, saying he was operating under the alias Sergey Vyachaeslavovich Fedotov in his part in the plot to poison the former Russian double agent.
Skripal, an officer in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of spies to MI6, and his daughter Yulia were found slumped unconscious on a bench in Salisbury in March 2018 after being poisoned with the Novichok military-grade nerve agent.
The UK has accused two Russian GRU military intelligence officers of carrying out the attack.
Bellingcat said it had identified Sergeev as the third Russian agent who was also in Britain at the time and was suspected of being involved.
"Bellingcat can now reveal the true identity and background of this GRU officer, who operated internationally under the cover persona of Sergey Vyachaeslavovich Fedotov," the website said.
"In fact, this person is Denis Vyacheslavovich Sergeev, a high-ranking GRU officer and a graduate of Russiaâ's Military Diplomatic Academy."
Bellingcat said the man was also in Bulgaria in 2015 when a businessman there was poisoned by an unidentified substance.
Roman Dobrokhotov, editor of Bellingcat's Russian reporting partner The Insider, told the Associated Press: "We are almost 100-percent sure he was a key figure in the Skripal operation - he is linked to the Bulgarian poisonings."
Britain has charged two Russians - known by the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - with attempted murder in their absence and Bellingcat was the first to identify the men as Alexander Yevgenyevich Mishkin and Anatoly Chepiga, both of whom work for Russia's GRU intelligence services.
Two Russians, who identified themselves as Petrov and Boshirov, appeared on Russian TV to say they were innocent tourists who had gone to Salisbury to see its cathedral.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement in the incident, accusing British intelligence agencies of staging the attack to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.
A police officer also fell sick in the Salisbury attack, while two others - Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charlie Rowley, 45 - came into contact with the deadly nerve agent in the nearby town of Amesbury.
Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July, while Mr Rowley also suffered health problems after he was initially released from hospital.
The Foreign Office has not commented on the Bellingcat report.
