A third man may be involved in the poisoning of Sergey and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury last March.

The man is Sergey Fedotov, was identified in reports as having come to the UK at the same time as the attack was carried out.

The investigative website Bellingcat says that he is a Russian military intelligence officer and that the name is probably an alias.

MI6 agent Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the novichok nerve agent in Salisbury in March 2018 and fortunately both of them survived. Two Russians were then named as suspects, Anatoliy Chepigaand Alexander Mishkin, both linked to the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.

Bellingcat also claims that Fedotov frequently travelled to Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He also visited Bulgaria in April 2015, at the same time that a Bulgarian businessman involved in the defence industry fell ill with the symptoms of poisoning.

A spokesman for the Kremlin said that they didn’t believe the reports were real. The Russian Embassy in the UK also dismissed the reports. But British Police have made it clear that they remain open to the idea that others were involved beyond the two men they have named already.