MOSCOW (AP) — The investigative group Bellingcat says it has identified one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy as a highly-decorated colonel of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.

Bellingcat said Wednesday that the suspect, whose passport name was Ruslan Boshirov, is in fact Col. Anatoliy Chepiga.

Britain has charged him and another suspect, Alexander Petrov, with trying to kill Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with the Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok in the city of Salisbury on March 4.

Russia has fiercely denied any involvement in the poisoning. There was no immediate comment from Moscow on Bellingcat's latest claim.

The two men have appeared on the state-funded RT channel, saying they visited Salisbury as tourists and had nothing to do with the poisoning.