Russian diplomat accuses Bellingcat of leaking special services’ misinformation

British investigative journalism website Bellingcat is leaking misinformation of special services under the cover of investigations, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page on Friday.

The Russian diplomat commented on Bellingcat’s report that the group’s experts found out using the Russian Federal Migration Service’s data that two suspects in the Skripal poisoning case, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, were linked to the Russian military intelligence service GRU.

Zakharova noted that she has no doubt that Bellingcat is tied to special services. "Moreover, it is most likely that this is a special agency, which is leaking misinformation under the cover of investigations."

According to Zakharova, Bellingcat’s experts failed to provide evidence that Petrov and Boshirov were linked to the Salisbury poisoning case.

Zakharova also recalled that earlier this website almost monopolized the right to the truth in investigating the MH17 crash in Donbass in 2014. "They provided such details, which could not have been collected by the entire scientific and research institute, not to speak about a private company."

On March 4, former Russian intelligence officer and convicted British spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were allegedly poisoned with a nerve agent, according to British investigators. Later on, London stated that this agent had been developed in Russia and blamed Moscow for being behind the incident based on this assumption.

Moscow refuted all accusations, saying that neither the Soviet Union, nor Russia had any programs for developing this agent. Experts from the British chemical laboratory in Porton Down failed to identify the origin of the agent that poisoned the Skripals.