The second suspect in the Salisbury poisoning case was a doctor and highly decorated Russian military intelligence officer, an investigative website says.

Bellingcat said it used a combination of online material and leaked documents to identify Alexander Mishkin, 39, as someone linked to the attack in March. It said President Vladimir Putin had presented him with the Hero of the Russian Federation award. When asked about the naming of Mr Mishkin, the Kremlin would not comment.

Last month, Bellingcat named the first suspect as Anatoliy Chepiga, a claim also rejected by Russia.

At a news conference in the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, Bellingcat investigator Cristo Grozev said Mr Mishkin – like Mr Chepiga – was a member of the GRU and given the celebrated award in the autumn of 2014 for “actions in Ukraine”. He said Mr Mishkin’s grandmother has a photograph, that has “been seen by everybody in the village” of President Putin shaking Mr Mishkin’s hand and giving him the award.

The BBC has contacted two people who knew Mr Mishkin as a child in Loyga in the north of Russia, and they confirmed from photographs that he was the man seen in images released by police after the Salisbury attack in March.

Bellingcat a UK based website claims Mr Mishkin’s real passport and the false passport he travelled to the UK on in the name of Alexander Petrov carried the same date of birth. It claims he was recruited by Russian intelligence while he was completing his medical studies, and made several trips to Ukraine, including during the 2013 unrest.

London’s Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service said last month that there was enough evidence to charge Mr Mishkin and Mr Chepiga with attempted murder.

Detectives said the pair arrived in the UK using passports bearing the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov on 2 March, although they had said it was likely the men were travelling under aliases.

Former GRU officer Sergei Skripal – who sold secrets to MI6 – and his daughter Yulia survived being poisoned with Novichok on 4 March. The suspects are alleged to have smeared the nerve agent on a door handle of his home in Salisbury. The attack left Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia critically ill, but Dawn Sturgess, 44, was later exposed to the same nerve agent and died in hospital.

The event sparked a series of accusations and denials between the UK and Russian governments, culminating in diplomatic expulsions and international sanctions.