Citizen journalist site scores over professionals

by Brian Bamford

BELLINGCAT, a website founded by the British citizen journalist Eliot Higgins, has just published its findings in its investigations into the Skripal poisoning case.  The collective Bellingcat, who worked with Russian news organisation The Insider, claim they have identified the second suspect involved as Alexander Mishkin, a doctor working for the Russian GRU intelligence service.

Along with another suspect, earlier identified by Bellingcat to be Anatoliy Chepiga, Mishkin travelled to the British town Salisbury in March 2018 and allegedly poisoned former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Skripal, who was a former Russian intelligence officer turned double agent, was poisined using the rare chemical nerve agent called Novichok.  After the poisoning, both Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia spent several weeks in a hospital, but both ultimately survived.

From the Russian regime's point of view it was a botched job.

It must be said that Russia has denied any involvement in the case and has claimed the two Russians were in Salisbury on a tourist trip anxious to see the sights of Salisbury town centre with its cathedral and clock tower. 

Once Bellingcat was launched in 2014, major ground was covered over the course of its first investigation, the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). Bellingcat concluded that the downing was initiated by the Russian military; this was later confirmed by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which found in a report dated 25 May 2018 that the downing of MH17 was initiated by the Russian military.

Following a Russia Today's interview with the suspects of the Sergei Skripal poisoning case, Bellingcat published the suspects’ passport data showing inconsistencies in the official story, and possible links to the Russian secret service.   Since then the Russian foreign ministry rejected the report stating that it believed Bellingcat had ties to western intelligence.  It noted Bellingcat's access to a Russian database not publicly available.

Bellingcat was founded in 2014 by British journalist Eliot Higgins, with the help of a crowd-funding campaign.  It's good news that a do-it-yourself outfit like this has triumphed over the institutional media.

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