RISE investigative journalist Vladimir Thorik found the real holder of the foreign passport issued in the name of Moldovan citizen Nicolae Popa, whose copy was used by the presupposed officer of Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU) Aleksandr Mishkin (alias “Alexandr Petrov”) during the operation to explode military warehouses in the Czech Republic in 2014, IPN reports, quoting the journalist’s comment in social media.

The copy of the counterfeit foreign passport was earlier published by investigative journalists of The Insider and Bellingcat. The journalist of RISE Moldova found the number of this passport in an international database of plane passengers with the assistance of foreign counterparts.

According to the journalist’s data, the holder of the authentic foreign passport is a person from Drochia district situated in northern Moldova.

“This is called Vitalie C. (we will not publish his surname as the man is obviously not concerned). Vitalie is 38. <…> He lives in the U.S., works in the building and interior renovation sector,” said Thorik, specifying that the number and issue year of the passport coincide with those in the document of Mishkin. Only the name and date of birth differ: they added three more years to the presupposed agent Mishkin.

The man posted a comment on social networking site for the RISE journalist.

“This is bullshit. <…> I never traveled to Russia for work or rest. I once was at the airport in transit, but didn’t go out to the city. I wasn’t stopped or questioned. These are conspiracies,” Vitalie C responded to the journalist.  

Discussing with IPN, Vladimir Thorik said the copy of the counterfeit document, the cover Moldovan passport of Petrov-Mishkin, which was used during the special GRU operation in the Czech Republic, could have been made by unknown persons anywhere, not only in Moldova, even individually, using a printer.