Debunked: Fake photos-Novichok attack Russian 'agents' (side by side gates)

[tadaaa]

The UK government has named the suspects in the Novichok poisoning case, however some people are claiming it is a set-up, as some of the photos the Metropolitan Police have released are faked

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

"These CCTV images released by Scotland yard today allegedly show Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov both occupying exactly the same space at Gatwick airport at precisely the same second. 16.22.43 on 2 March 2018. Note neither photo shows the other following less than a second behind."

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it certainly looks a little odd

here are the originals from Met Police website

http://news.met.police.uk/images/cc...-airport-at-15-00hrs-on-02-march-2018-1407995



http://news.met.police.uk/images/cc...-airport-at-15-00hrs-on-02-march-2018-1407997




you can download hi res ones from the met links


at first I thought it may have been a crude addition of timestamps - but they appear on the Met Police office releases

Craig Murray does accept the possibility that it could be two different locations - and the times a coincidence (but we do know coincidences happen all the time)

the angles do look slightly different to me - that may indicate two "channels"


***moderator add: see Post# 8 and Post #14

A Met Police spokesman told The Telegraph: "The images of the two suspects at Gatwick are taken from two different cameras covering separate lanes at the point passengers exit from international arrivals."

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[deirdre]

Craig Murray does accept the possibility that it could be two different locations - and the times a coincidence (but we do know coincidences happen all the time)

the angles do look slightly different to me - that may indicate two "channels"

the angles are different. you can see the top of the wall in your first picture (the black border).

and the photos say they are 2 different cameras









From the MetPD link on your photos: (bold added for highlight)

At 3pm on Friday, 2 March, the suspects arrived at Gatwick airport, having flown from Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2588.

From there it is believed that they travelled by train into London, arriving at Victoria station at approximately 5.40pm.

They then travelled on London public transport to Waterloo station and were in the area between approximately 6pm and 7pm.

........

The first CCTV image (timed at 16.22 on Friday 2 March) shows the man we know as “Petrov” arriving at London Gatwick airport.

The second image, also time at 16.22 on Friday 2 March, is of the man we know as “Boshirov” at Gatwick.

Image three, shows the suspects at 16.11 on Saturday, 3 March at Salisbury train station about to catch a train back to London.

..............etc



http://news.met.police.uk/news/coun...ts-in-connection-with-salisbury-attack-320534

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The UK government has named the suspects

the MetPD link on your photos says: (bold added for highlight)

I am therefore, appealing for anyone who has information about the suspects named by the CPS today as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov to contact police. Both suspects are approximately 40 years old, and are Russian nationals who were travelling on Russian passports.

It is likely that they were travelling under aliases and that these are not their real names. We would like to hear from anyone who knows them. We are releasing these photographs of them, from the travel documents they used to enter the country.
http://news.met.police.uk/news/coun...ts-in-connection-with-salisbury-attack-320534

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[tadaaa]

thanks for the Title Edit

and yes I did not see that re the cameras

 

[deirdre]

Craig Murray does accept the possibility that it could be two different locations

I do not think it is 2 different locations though. They were both on the same plane which landed at 15:58


https://www.airportia.com/flights/su2588/moscow/london/

and it looks like they are in that moveable walkway they attach to planes.

I also wonder if the cameras are motion detectors that snap photos vs. a movie type camera as both men seem to be snapped in the exact same location. What that has to do with how the cameras work, I have no idea. Cameras aren't something I am very familiar with.

 

[vooke]

They are different cameras for sure. Bottom right under the PAUSE word is that red sign in the wall. It’s different on both images. Unlesss they rotate.

Further,when I look at that corridor/walkway, looking behind the men, I see the walls have a repetitive pattern of those metallic bars and the black vertical lines. Means they were not necessarily at the same place,and it increases probability of snapping the suspects at similar looking points along the corridor.

 

[cloudspotter]

and it looks like they are in that moveable walkway they attach to planes.

I don't think so. It looks too narrow and carpeted for that. I found this video of passengers leaving a plane at Gatwick and it matches with my experiences of using those walkways




Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPOY9KdWTPs

 

[cloudspotter]

Article in the Daily Mail

At arrivals at Gatwick Airport you leave the plane before heading to passport control and then move to collect your bags at the carousels.

You then go through the section of the airport where you have to declare items.

After walking through this and prior coming into the main part of the airport to get your taxi, pick up your car or get a train, you are faced with a number of thin gate corridors.

Frequent flyers will know you can't go through the gates together and rather than queuing up in single file you split up and go through different segments.

This is what Petrov and Boshirov do and why the time is exactly the same.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-images-UK-police-rubbish-claims-instant.html

 

[tadaaa]

I do not think it is 2 different locations though. They were both on the same plane which landed at 15:58


https://www.airportia.com/flights/su2588/moscow/london/

and it looks like they are in that moveable walkway they attach to planes.

I also wonder if the cameras are motion detectors that snap photos vs. a movie type camera as both men seem to be snapped in the exact same location. What that has to do with how the cameras work, I have no idea. Cameras aren't something I am very familiar with.

sorry I should have been clearer not two physical locations - just two different corridors in the same location

it seems at least one "sceptical" site has accepted the obvious explanation

"Here is the answer to the above questions. In the North Terminal of Gatwick Airport, at the northern end of arrival level zero, there are several parallel and apparently identical gates leading into the airport. Each of these has a camera.

,
Thanks to Bruce Leidl who found the above picture in Google maps.bigger
The two pictures above with identical timestamps were taken in two of these gates with each of the 'Russian assassins' passing through one of them at the same time. Aeroflot flights from Moscow are serviced at the North Terminal.".

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/09/a-curious-timestamp-in-the-new-novichok-evidence.html#more

 

[Miss VocalCord]

sorry I should have been clearer not two physical locations - just two different corridors in the same location

it seems at least one "sceptical" site has accepted the obvious explanation



http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/09/a-curious-timestamp-in-the-new-novichok-evidence.html#more

And here are they on google maps, you can walk through yourself and see they really seem to match:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.161...jgscVRsUw!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i15
And I guess this is the security camera:
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.161...Tn9ndYplA!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i56

A quick comparison:
Source: https://imgur.com/a/BAybhyV

 

[Trailblazer]

and the photos say they are 2 different cameras

I don't think the labels "CCTV1" and "CCTV2" necessarily indicate that they are different cameras. They are just handy identifiers given to the images: first CCTV image, second CCTV image, and so on (the photos in Salisbury station and town centre are labelled CCTV3, CCTV4 and so on).

But yes, the simple explanation is that they are walking through the parallel gates at arrivals. You can clearly see that the angle of the cameras and other details on the walls differ.

 

[cloudspotter]

And here are they on google maps, you can walk through yourself and see they really seem to match:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.161...jgscVRsUw!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i15
And I guess this is the security camera:
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.161...Tn9ndYplA!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i56

There's the red sign you can see the corner of in thr second photo

 

[Miss VocalCord]

There's the red sign you can see the corner of in thr second photo

Yes, it all seems to match, the red sign, the position of the camera, the walk through doors, etc.

 

[DavidB66]

I agree the most likely explanation is simply that they are going down a long narrow corridor (or maybe two different corridors) with several near-identical fittings, as one can see in the photos themselves. I say 'near-identical' because, as others have pointed out, there are some slight differences. I don't think it has been mentioned that in one of the photos the folded 'gate' on the viewer's right side of the picture is tighter against the wall than in the other one, so unless one of the men moved it while going through, they must be different gates.
Until I saw the latest comments I was going to make another suggestion, that the photographs might have been edited in order to present clear separate images of the two suspects. After all, the main purpose of releasing the images is presumably to assist identification. But on seeing the comments I think it is far more likely that these are genuine unedited images taken at slightly different locations.

 

[DavidB66]

The Russian authorities have latched onto this story (if they didn't start it in the first place). According to today's Daily Telegraph (UK), Russia is claiming that the images were doctored:

… The Kremlin claimed the timestamp had been overlaid on the CCTV photographs of them arriving through gates at Gatwick on March 2 as they showed the same time - 16:22:43.

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Had the two men been walking through the same gate, there may have been cause for concern, but police confirmed the men were picked up by cameras at separate gates having split up and walked through the two gates simultaneously.


A Met Police spokesman told The Telegraph: "The images of the two suspects at Gatwick are taken from two different cameras covering separate lanes at the point passengers exit from international arrivals."

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...as-no-reason-to-investigate-uk-named-suspects​

As that is entirely consistent with the analysis here, I think we can say 'case closed'. Not that that is likely to stop conspiracy theorists repeating it.

Just one small point to add: the fact that the two timestamps show exactly the same time may not be entirely coincidental, as both images are marked PAUSE, and the Police analyst may have deliberately chosen to pause them at the same time. However, if the two men started walking through the corridors at the same time, and took only a few seconds to reach the end near the CCTV cameras, the fact that they show the same time to the nearest second may not be very significant. [Added: For a healthy man a normal walking pace would be about 5 feet per second. It might be a bit less than this if the man is carrying or pulling luggage. Even so, it should not take more than 10 seconds to walk down a corridor like these, maybe 20 feet long. So for two men to reach the end of the corridors within a second of each other is not a massive coincidence.]

 

[fishcake]

I rotated and skewed the image in order to align the two cameras. The locations are very similar, though there are minor differences - the moving barriers are slightly rotated, and one of the vertical elements of the wall at the back of the corridor is slightly wider. The reflections of the metal on the walls are very similar, though this is to be expected. It's very plausible that these are two neighboring corridors, and the men walked in at precisely the same time. [off topic text removed]

 

[tadaaa]

Thanks all

I think the original claim has been withdrawn - so some credit is due

although it seems he was very quick to jump to conclusions

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

UPDATE

I am prepared to acknowledge that, given the gate design, they could have passed through different gates in exact synchronicity and this may be a red herring. I am leaving this post up here as it is good to acknowledge mistakes.

 

[Mick West]

Here's another comparison with darker contrast. You can see that the shadows on translucent walls change.
Also the smudges over the men changes, indicating different cameras. There is also a dark spot on the carpet in the background of the tilted shot.


I think Russia is only pushing this issue as a distraction. Clearly they just went through separate doors, like everyone does in that situation.

 

[tarzanbundolo]

Flip the other photo horizontally and compare the details. They align almost perfectly. Here's a photo I made myself. The upper combination contains the original images and the lower combination contains a horizontally flipped image. With a few remarks.

 

[Mick West]

Flip the other photo horizontally and compare the details. They align almost perfectly. Here's a photo I made myself. The upper combination contains the original images and the lower combination contains a horizontally flipped image. With a few remarks.

And so? They are symmetrical structures. What does it matter if they align slightly better mirrored? They are still different.

 

[tarzanbundolo]

And so? They are symmetrical structures. What does it matter if they align slightly better mirrored? They are still different.

The differencies are lesser compared to the uniformity of the details. Like the gates. Of course they can be in such position by coincidence, like the coincidental time stamps and the coincidental location of the both men at the exactly same time. I have no personal reasons to hate Russia so I won't come up with biased opinions.

 

[DavidB66]

The differencies are lesser compared to the uniformity of the details. Like the gates. Of course they can be in such position by coincidence, like the coincidental time stamps and the coincidental location of the both men at the exactly same time. I have no personal reasons to hate Russia so I won't come up with biased opinions.

"The differences are lesser compared to the uniformity of the details."
I'm not sure what point you are making. If you just mean that the two corridors have more similarities than differences, that is true, but it is not surprising. The two corridors are constructed to the same design, so of course they have many similarities. Suppose we were considering two photographs of cars, and we wanted to know whether the photographs showed the same identical car, or two different cars of the same brand and model. For that purpose there would be little point in listing all the similarities of design. It would be more relevant to examine details that might vary, such as the exact alignment of the wing mirrors or windscreen wipers. In the two photographs from Gatwick, there are enough detailed differences (such as the dark spot on the carpet noted by Mick West) to prove that the two photographs cannot show the same corridor at the same time. They either show two different corridors, or the same corridor at two different times, with slight changes occurring between the two times. The second possibility seems to be ruled out by other accepted facts, since no-one disputes that the two men passed through the Gatwick exit gates at about the same time.

"Of course they can be in such position by coincidence, like the coincidental time stamps and the coincidental location of the both men at the exactly same time."
It is not 'coincidental' that the two men were leaving the airport at the same time, since it is not disputed that they were travelling together. The only point that might be considered 'coincidental' is the fact that the time stamps on the videos show exactly the same times, to the nearest second. I have discussed this myself in some previous comments in this thread. I would consider it as only mildly surprising. Given that two men, of similar build and fitness, are starting to walk the same short distance at about the same time, we would not expect the time they take to differ by more than a few seconds. If they were independently walking a much longer distance - say, a mile - it would be much more surprising if they took exactly the same time, to the nearest second. But where the range of possible times is only a few seconds, the probability of a coincidence is reasonably high. It should also be noted that the times may not be entirely independent, as the two men may have heard or even seen each other through the translucent partitions.

 

[Trailblazer]

Given that two men, of similar build and fitness, are starting to walk the same short distance at about the same time, we would not expect the time they take to differ by more than a few seconds.

Not even that much, I would think. I don't know exactly how long these gates are but it looks like it would only take about something like five seconds to walk through them. So if the two men arrived at the gates together, as would be natural, then their speeds walking through would have to be significantly different in order for them to be out of sync by more than one second by the time they were at the position where they were photographed.

In fact it should be possible to measure how long the corridor it is, from the photographs on this thread.

Looking at the Google "Street View" images, I would guess the square floor tiles are standard 30cm x 30cm tiles, based on comparisons with people's feet (NB it is not carpet as Mick suggested). Which makes the length of the passageway about:

5 x 30cm = 1.5 metres from the end of the metal railings to the metal strip on the floor just inside the glass doors.

plus

11.5 x 30cm = 3.45 metres from that strip to the second set of glass doors

plus

2.5 x 30cm = 0.75 metres from that second set of glass doors to the metal swinging gates that are level with where the men were photographed.

So that's 5.7 metres. Less than six metres from the start of the railings to the point where they were photographed. At typical walking speed of 1.4 metres per second, that is about four seconds. Possibly slightly more if they had to wait for the gates to open, but you would assume the gates in identical tunnels to open at the same speed, so that should not introduce any differences.

 

[deirdre]

I have no personal reasons to hate Russia so I won't come up with biased opinions.

they flew from Russia. they had fake Russian passports. So we don't know yet if the men are actually Russian.

We do know the gates at Gatway are identical in construction. People walk together at the same speeds all the time, you've never purposefully changed the speed of your walk because you end up walking with/next to a stranger at the mall for too long and it feels weird?

 

[Vierotchka]

they flew from Russia. they had fake Russian passports. So we don't know yet if the men are actually Russian.

Actually, they are indeed Russian and they did not have fake passports.

Did you not see their interview on YouTube?

Streamed live on 13 Sep 2018

Exclusive interview with Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov on the Skripal poisoning case in Salisbury.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku8OQNyI2i0


They were not given the questions prior to the interview. Furthermore, the GRU was disbanded 19 years ago, which makes the two suspects members of a defunct intelligence agency!

 

[deirdre]

Did you not see their interview on YouTube?

No I didn't. thank you for sharing. At 22 mins they discuss the gates at Gatwick. (basically they don't remember)

 

[bobbobskin]

With relation to the following.

1. Sure the GRU is now called Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых Сил Росси́йской Федера́ции), and thus abbreviated to G.U, however it's still commonly called GRU, and it's still effectively the same people.

2. I'll just note that MI5 is "The Security Service" and MI6 is the "Secret Intelligence Service" in the same vein.

3. The question of whether they have "fake" passports all depends on the definition of a "fake" passport. I doubt their is any question that these Russians have passports genuinely issued by the Russian government. If one considers a genuine passport issued in a fictitious identity or name, created by an agency to be "fake" - in light of the fact the person doesn't really "exist" and is a cover name, then they might be considered to be fake. If one only limits the definition of being a "fake passport" to be "not genuinely issued by the genuine authority" then it's unlikely they are "fake".

Which side of the fence are you on?

Actually, they are indeed Russian and they did not have fake passports.
...
They were not given the questions prior to the interview. Furthermore, the GRU was disbanded 19 years ago, which makes the two suspects members of a defunct intelligence agency!

 

[DavidB66]

According to news reports, one of the two suspects has allegedly been identified as a Colonel in the GRU: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45656004

An investigative journalism website has published what it says is the real identity of one of the Russian intelligence officers suspected of the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning.

The Bellingcat group claims the man who was named as Ruslan Boshirov is actually Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga.

British officials have not commented. The BBC understands there is no dispute over the identification.

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I must say he looks to me rather young to be a Colonel of anything, but maybe it is just my age: as one gets older, people like policemen and doctors increasingly seem to be barely out of school.

 

[BombDr]

As a weary traveller and victim of Gatwick Airport, the arrival lanes are pretty much identical, and not sure why they wouldn't be. Craig Murray and I often joust on Twitter, but he does seem to tweet on incomplete information and often emotionally. He is of the 'something fishy' type rather than asserting answers, he is pointing out anomalies or using poor logic to find something other than the obvious.

 

[Mick West]

As a weary traveller and victim of Gatwick Airport, the arrival lanes are pretty much identical, and not sure why they wouldn't be.

I think part of the reason why this gained a little traction is that automated exit gates like this are a relatively new addition, and still don't exist in many airports. Had I not flown for a few years then my only point of reference for a narrow passage would be a jetway, of which there is usually just one.

In my local airport (Sacramento) they installed a row of exit gates like this two years ago. Before that you simply walked out along a wide corridor.

Even knowing this, I first assumed these photos were in a jetway, so I think it's a pretty understandable mistake to make. It's only when it's pointed out what it actually is (side by side gates that people naturally walk through side by side, at the same time) that people start to be unreasonable.

 

[Mick West]

I think part of the reason why this gained a little traction is that automated exit gates like this are a relatively new addition, and still don't exist in many airports.

In the US that is, perhaps more common elsewhere.
https://sacramento.aero/scas/about/...ort_installs_high_tech_exit_lanes_in_terminal

Tuesday, November 8, 2016
SACRAMENTO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT INSTALLS HIGH-TECH EXIT LANES IN TERMINAL B

Sacramento International Airport joins several airports in adopting this new technology. Sea-Tac International Airport was the first in the U.S. to use an ELBC system. An additional 10 airports have either installed ELBC systems or plan to do so in 2017

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[Todd Cee]

I have never been on an airline gateway that wasn't packed with people either boarding or deplaning ... just thought I would throw than in for discussion ...

 

[BombDr]

I have never been on an airline gateway that wasn't packed with people either boarding or deplaning ... just thought I would throw than in for discussion ...

Its not the bridge to the plane, its the entry gates to the UK following immigration control. They have many gates side by side which are in an airlock style, ie one closes before the next one opens. This way there is no going back to the arrivals lounge and they can photograph and count people accurately.

 

[Mechanik]

Its not the bridge to the plane, its the entry gates to the UK following immigration control. They have many gates side by side which are in an airlock style, ie one closes before the next one opens. This way there is no going back to the arrivals lounge and they can photograph and count people accurately.

They just added these gates in San Jose as well. I was there last week and noticed they had been added. They allow automated exits so you no longer need a guard to make sure no one enters the wrong way.

 

[Todd Cee]

Its not the bridge to the plane, its the entry gates to the UK following immigration control. They have many gates side by side which are in an airlock style, ie one closes before the next one opens. This way there is no going back to the arrivals lounge and they can photograph and count people accurately.

thanks for the clarification ... I thought it was the gateway to the plane ...

 

[BombDr]

thanks for the clarification ... I thought it was the gateway to the plane ...

Well that was heavily suggested on Russian TV and their twitter bots, but it does look that way too