Grandmother of Novichok hitman Dr Alexander Mishkin vanishes after she gave away his secret identity
THE gran of Novichok poisoner Dr Alexander Mishkin has vanished — just days after confirming his true identity.
Investigators say the woman, in her 90s, went missing from her village in the remote Arkhangelsk Oblast region three days ago.
It comes after she proudly showed off pictures of a cherished Hero of the Russian Federation medal 39-year-old Mishkin received from President Putin for clandestine service in Ukraine in 2014.
Col Anatoliy Chepiga, 39, Mishkin’s accomplice in the nerve agent assassination bid on former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March, also holds the top honour.
The Bellingcat website unmasked Mishkin as a member of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency. He was recruited in 2003 after training to be a military doctor.
Its reporters visited Loyga, the village where he grew up, hoping to speak to his gran but after arriving they found out she had gone.
Cristo Grozev, who works for the site, said: "The grandmother was asked to visit her children — Mr Mishkin's father and mother — in another town, so she vanished."
On Russian TV last month Mishkin, who used the spy alias Alexander Petrov, said he was in Salisbury for tourism.
He moaned that the snow had blighted the trip but faced fresh ridicule after Mr Grozev said remote Loyga was enveloped in snow "for 11 and a half months a year".
Security minister Ben Wallace, meanwhile, warned the GRU should not be taken lightly — despite its blunders.
He said: "We should not underestimate them nor indeed the dangerous and reckless use of nerve agent on our streets."
GRU doctor Alexander Mishkin was made a Hero of the Russian Federation for fighting in Ukraine's civil war.
Anatoliy Chepiga, the other GRU spy who carried out the Novichok attack in Salisbury under the name Ruslan Boshirov, was also honoured by Putin.
Mishkin grew up in the tiny town of Loyga, 500 miles from Moscow, which has no proper roads leading to the rest of Russia.
Multiple residents told reporters from Bellingcat they knew Mishkin was a spy because his elderly grandmother had shown them the photo of him with Putin.
She treasures the snap so much she never lets anyone else hold it, sources in the village said.
Mishkin's gran has now disappeared in the wake of the probe into her grandson.
Mr Grosev said: "The moment we announced this press conference, the grandmother was asked to visit her children in a different town, so she vanished from her village three days ago."
Mishkin is a military doctor who specialises in treating submarine crew.
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He has used the pseudonym of Petrov for nearly a decade and has worked for the GRU since he was at university.
Chepiga and Mishkin stayed at a budget hotel in East London before travelling to Salisbury and smearing deadly novichok poison on Skripal's doorknob.
The spy and his daughter Yulia were left gravely ill, while local woman Dawn Sturgess later died after handling the perfume bottle used to administer the toxin.
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