Thread by @elenaevdokimov7

1. ATlantic council's fellow Higging and @bellingcat created a new opus on Petrov and Bashirov, implying that they are members of GRU, Russian secret service. Lets look at "facts" they provided to prove these allegations.

2. Bellingcat implies that there is an alleged stamp on Alexander Petrov’s passport dossier:“Do not provide any information”and his handwritten name. All passport documents in Russia are typed,without exclusion. There is no point to duplicate the name on top.Real 1P form below

3. This conclusion Bellingcat supports with another EMPTY document
with a handwritten note on top stating that somebody recommended to make is confidential "совершенно секретно" "С.С."We have to BELIEVE that its Petrov's form. BTW,those words are always stamped, not handwritten.

4. Google easily found that as Bellincat stated "Mandatory for Russian citizens over the age of 14" passport became mandatory only on 13th March 1997. Being born on 13 July 1979, Petrov became 14 in 1993, so his first passport was issued not at 14, but when he was 16, in 1995.

5. This passport was issued by the police dept of the place where he lived at the time (in 1995), it may be small Kotlas or even any place in former USSR republics if his family traveled for work in USSR. So his first passport might not be issued by Russian Federation in 1995

6. Most likely, as he was born in the area of Russian Federation, he was entitled to be a citizen of Russian Federation, no matter where he lived in 1991, when USSR fell apart.

7. Another reason for the alleged missing records- the united database, that Belligcat either hacked or bribed somebody to access, started to fill in only in 2014. There were separate databases before-for border control, migration service, police, etc.

8. Petrov, as everyone else, graduated from Secondary school at 18, i.e. in 1997. 2 year military service was compulsory for boys ( until 14th June 2006). So he served in the army until 1999. Military people do not have passports in Russia, they always have different documents.

So, that's why he was issued a passport in 1999, when he finished military service and not because he was a GRU agent in his teenage years, as Bellingcat implies.

10. Petrov's 1999 passport was not in the central passport database because the database was created in 2014, there were some errors occurred during databases merging, some passports were even declared invalid

11. Petrov's 1999 passport was replaced because it became "unsuitable for usage”, a marking typically used when a previous passport has been damaged, this does not make him Russian Secret service GRU agent. It simply means that his 1999 passport was damaged.

Bellincat's claim that "Boshirov and Petrov’s passport files, indicating that they were separated by only 3 digits (-1294 and -1297), meaning that they were issued at nearly the same time"- so they are GRU-is funny, as their are gays, a couple that applied for passports together

Bellingcat : "Additionally, Fontanka noted that Petrov and Boshirov bought two separate return flights back to Moscow on March 4"
Well,Anatoly Shariy internal sources stated that they bought tickets only for one return trip,places 22a & 22c, and he is cheking his facts carefully

#Skripal #Novichok
14. Anything left from the Bellingcat's claim that they found that Petrov & Boshirov are GRU agents? Nothing
As Petrov and Boshirov being agents of Secret service of another country, a sleeper cell in Russia - that's another matter, that's possible.

About the 195-79-66 number As far as I remember- the last 2 digits in Soviet paperwork always represented the year and the whole number was never a phone number. I do not think much changed since then. Sorry folks to spoil your fun

#Skripal BBC published Petrov's so called 1P internal passport application form dated 19 November 2009. What is this form? The 1P form of 2006 was used until it was replaced in December 2009. It looks nothing like the real form.
Is it a fake made by the Bellingcat "source"?