Those working at the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph can be forgiven for celebrating when their paper actually ponies up a real and original story. But what they did yesterday afternoon, after the excellent Bellingcat site revealed the true identity of one of the two Russians linked to the Salisbury Novichok poisoning, was beyond shameless.
The claim by Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and the various propaganda mouthpieces of his gangster régime that the two visitors to Salisbury were mere tourists, nothing more than civilians, always looked suspicious. As the BBC has reported, “Following the attempted poisoning in March, UK investigators identified one of the two suspects as Ruslan Boshirov … But the website Bellingcat says he is actually an intelligence officer by the name of Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga”. And it got worse.
Eliot Higgins is on the sofa. And the Telegraph isn't
“He has served in Chechnya and Ukraine and was made a ‘Hero of the Russian Federation’ in 2014 … British officials have not commented, but the BBC understands there is no dispute over the identification”. And first with the news?
That would be Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat: “Breaking Skripal news from Bellingcat, we've established the real identity of one of the suspects, and he's not a sports nutritional supplement salesman”. Quite so. Along with their investigative partner The Insider - Russia, Bellingcat had concluded that Boshirov was in fact Chepiga.
Carole Cadwalladr of the Observer praised Bellingcat’s work: “More brilliant work from @bellingcat. Skripal suspect not only a highly decorated GRU colonel but to ‘send him back to a field job’ would be ‘extraordinary’. Suggests job may have been ordered ‘at the highest level’”. Peter Jukes of Byline Media was similarly impressed.
“To send a highly decorated colonel back to a field job would be highly extraordinary, and would imply that ‘the job was ordered at the highest level.’ @bellingcat on fire at the moment. Amazing work @EliotHiggins and Team”.
Then, out of nowhere, came an intervention from Hayley Dixon of the Telegraph. “Watch the @Telegraph website at 5pm for a major breaking news story….” Her colleague Josie Ensor spelt it out. “Incredible @bellingcat/@Telegraph investigation into Russian poisoners. Looking harder & harder to deny the order didn't came from the top. Skripal 'hitman' unmasked as GRU colonel awarded Russia's highest military honour by Putin”. Suddenly it was a Telegraph joint effort. Or was it?
One unimpressed Tweeter shot back “Where was the Telegraph involvement? It was a Bellingcat + Russia-Insider investigation”. But the Tel this morning claims otherwise.
“The disclosure, uncovered by investigative journalism organisation Bellingcat and the Daily Telegraph …” it tells readers in its front page splash. So what’s going on?
My information is that Bellingcat talked to the Tel about the investigation, but the paper contributed nothing to the story. Fortunately, other media outlets have correctly credited only Bellingcat, or given The Insider - Russia a mention, too.
The Telegraph’s desperation knows no bounds. It may also know no partners very soon.
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