Thread by @bellingcat

We've published a new, major investigation (along with @the_ins_ru, @derspiegel, and @SvobodaRadio) into the cooperation between the GRU's military unit 29155 and two research centers to develop and deploy chemical weapons -- including Novichok.
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

We've acquired the phone logs for a number of officers with the GRU's unit 29155, including Andrei Averyanov. A number that kept popping up on these logs was that of Sergey Chepur -- a 50-year old military doctor and expert in extreme toxicology.

Sergey Chepur is the director of the St. Petersburg State Institute for Experimental Military Medicine of the Min. of Defense. Phone logs show that he would make a number of calls to GRU officers right before a number of key operations, including the poisoning of Sergey Skripal.

Along with calling GRU officers right before they departed on assassination missions to Europe, Chepur also flew to Moscow and visited the GRU before these operations.

Along with Chepur and his St. Petersburg-based institute for experimental military medicine, the GRU was also in close contact with the Scientific Center Signal (“SC Signal”) -- a research & development firm that focuses on chemical weapons.

One of the labs of SC Signal is located at Natatinskaya 16 in Moscow. The same address houses one of Russia’s military institutes tasked with the destruction of Russia”s chemical weapons arsenal.

Except for the GRU officers, none of these individuals or organizations have received attention from Western sanctions or major reports.

Read more:
From us - bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
@RFERL: rferl.org/a/exclusive-po…
@the_ins_ru: theins.ru/politika/236238

And @derspiegel: spiegel.de/politik/auslan…