Reality slipping in Putin's bubble
John Sparks, Africa correspondent
If you decided to make a list of post-war spy missions that ultimately failed to achieve their objectives it would be difficult to think of an operation that has been so utterly unsuccessful as the Russian government's attempt to kill Sergei Skripal.
Two highly experienced operatives from the Russian military's GRU intelligence division bungled their attempt to assassinate the former double agent and his daughter at their modest red-brick home in Salisbury.
Furthermore, the pair managed to expose their movements on passenger manifests, broadcast their physical and facial features courtesy of the UK's extensive system of CCTV cameras and provide enough information about themselves from passport lists that the diggers at Bellingcat and Russia Insider magazine have managed to positively identify one of them.
Would-be tourist and early-English gothic architecture fan, Ruslan Boshirov, has come in from the cold after passport data and military academy year-book photos were used to confirm that he is in fact, a decorated colonel called Anatoliy Chepiga.
