The regurgitation by most of the British media of claims made by Bellingcat, that Ruslan Boshirov is in reality a decorated Colonel of the GU, marks a new low in the already low standards of journalism in this country.
I don't want to spend my time going through Bellingcat's claim. I have no idea whether it is true or not. However, I will say that
if the purpose of the report was intended to prove to discerning people that Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga and Ruslan Boshirov are one and the same person, it failed miserably. If, on the other hand, the intention was to hoodwink less discerning people into
thinking that the connection had been proved, then it was a fine job. Regardless of whether or not Boshirov turns out to be Chepiga,
all Bellingcat essentially did was make an inconclusive photographic connection, and then proceed to treat readers to a biography of Chepiga, as if it had just been proven conclusively that he is Boshirov. Which it hadn't.
Another point to note is that even if it turns out that Boshirov is really Chepiga, although this would prove that he didn't tell the truth in his interview with RT, and that Vladimir Putin misled when he said that the two accused men are civilians, would it actually prove the central claim against him? As a reminder, this is that between 12:10pm and 13:30 on 4th March, he walked up to the house of Sergei Skripal at 47 Christie Miller Road, Salisbury, and applied a high purity, military grade nerve agent to the door handle of the front door in an attempt to assassinate Mr Skripal.
In this Post-Truth society we find ourselves in, many apparently believe it would. But this is not so.
Comment: The terrorist revolution in Syria only existed because of EU complicity (among other guilty parties). Now EU countries are finally realizing they made a big mistake? Where were they years ago? What were they thinking? Regardless of all that, however, steps like this are probably necessary. By facilitating peace in Syria, fewer refugees will head for Europe (fewer terrorists, too), and a large number of Syrian refugees already in Europe will go back home. Everyone wins. But this whole tragedy could've been avoided. It was completely unnecessary to begin with.