The fire at an electrical substation in Hayes, west London, sparked travel chaos for hundreds of flights at Heathrow Airport with many being cancelled or diverted
Russian trolls on social media today claimed the Heathrow fire could have been a Vladimir Putin sabotage operation.
One post on Kremlin-funded Readovka Telegram channel declared: “Petrov and Boshirov came to see the cathedral again.” The pair Alexander Petrov and Boshirov – real names Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin – were the notorious suspects in the Novichok poisonings of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2018.
The GRU military intelligence officers, who posed as tourists visiting Salisbury Cathedral, are now believed to be spearheading a major Russian operation to sabotage Western countries. They are both wanted in Britain for the murder and attempted murder.
Another comment suggested the pair were travelling again: “Are Petrov and Boshirov on vacation?” Another wrote: “Now Petrov and Boshirov went to see Big Ben. The excursion was a success.”
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A commenter said: “Thus [with this fire] Putin is trying to break the will of the British people to help their Ukrainian brothers for free.” A commenter called Dima said: “Are they going to look for a ‘Russian trace’ again [after the Heathrow fire]?”
With Kremlin bots apparently active on the fire at the electrical substation in Hayes – before any official Russian comment – another said: “Respect to Petrov and Boshirov.” Yet another: “Where are Petrov and Bashirov? Are they inspecting the London spires…?”
Elena posted: “Will Starmer jump from the [Salisbury Cathedral] spire shouting: ‘The Russians are coming!’.” On the Putin propaganda outlet, Sergey posted, referring to Russia’s new ‘wonder weapon’: “Oreshnik hasn’t even flown to them yet.”
In what appeared to be a concerted operation, the Russian commenters blamed Britain for support for Ukraine, and claimed the disruption to Heathrow was a fair answer. But Marina posted: “Oh, that’s not enough, for all the evil [the British] have done….they’ve been sowing evil around the world since time immemorial.”
Another said: “Burn this stinking island to hell… along with its vile inhabitants…” One more post said: “Russians we did it.”
Andrey posted: “There shouldn’t be a working airport on the island, just like London, and the island should have been charred for three years already.
“Sooner or later, but it will have to be done.” Several suggested the London airport fire may have been caused by Shahed drones, of the kind Russia nightly uses to trigger carnage in Ukraine.
“That (was) Shahed, of course,” said one. Questions, what was the legendary NATO air defence doing?
“And how is everything built there, that one Shahed was able to disrupt the work of aviation all over the world?” Sergey Prokhorov posted: “It’s a pity that not all of London will burn, more often and more….”
Other Russians suggested the Ukrainians were behind the blast, so that Russian would be blamed. “As soon as they were forbidden to shoot at the Russian energy sector, a substation in London is burning.”
A report by independent Russian news sources Agentsvo and TV Rain revealed in November that two Russian agents behind the notorious Salisbury Novichok poisonings were “spearheading Vladimir Putin’s new campaign of sabotage in Western countries”.
The operatives were recruiting criminals to stage attacks. “The ones who poisoned [ex-spy Sergei] Skripal [in Salisbury]…..they are now recruiting [saboteurs], because they can’t travel the world themselves, they are recruiting,” said leading investigative journalist Christo Grozev.
“Literally Ruslan Boshirov [real name Anatoliy Chepiga] and his colleague [Alexander] Petrov [real name Alexander Mishkin], they are now recruiting criminals from all over the world [to take part in sabotage in the West]. It’s being done from Moscow, from Sevastopol, from St Petersburg.”
Chepiga “is engaged in training other spies, both professional special forces and non-professional criminals”. Mishkin “carried out sabotage [missions] on Ukrainian territory” earlier in the war, but is now “ engaged in training and recruitment” for Putin’s dirty tricks attacks in the West.
