RUSSIA’S answer to 007 gadget whizz “Q” has vanished amid suspicions he masterminded the Salisbury poison plot, a Sun investigation can reveal.

Spy chief Oleg Martyanov ran an elite technology department developing military robots, ­bullet-proof uniforms and un­detectable poisons.

20 Russian spy chief Oleg Martyanov, who ran an elite tech unit developing military robots, gadgets and undetectable poisons, has gone missing

He has now disappeared amid claims his experts produced the Novichok perfume bottle used to poison double agent Sergei Skripal, 67, and his 34-year-old daughter Yulia.

Martyanov, 58, fought in Afghanistan like ex-paratrooper Skripal, and was outraged at the betrayal by his former brother-in-arms decades later.

He had risen to become commander of Russia’s sinister Special Operations Forces when agents attempted to kill traitor Skripal.

But he quit suddenly in October, days after the two Salisbury assassins were unmasked as elite agents from Russia’s GRU foreign intelligence service — and has not been seen since.

20 Sergei Popov, head of Russia's Main Robotics Scientific Research and Test Centre and Oleg Martyanov of the country's Military Industrial Commission

20 Matryanov, 58, disappeared amid claims his experts produced the Novichok perfume bottle used to poison double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia

20 Salisbury suspects using the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov were caught on CCTV on Fisherton Road, Salisbury Credit: Handout - Getty

20 Vladimir Putin has declared MI6 double agent Skripal to be a 'traitor' and is believed to have privately sanctioned the mission to kill him Credit: Reuters

Aftermath of mysterious helicopter crash that killed Putin's legal point man on Skripal, Berezovsky and Litvinenko

His disappearance came as more evidence emerged suggesting the fiance of Yulia was a GRU “plant".

Stepan Vikeev, 30, has also vanished and it is claimed he made no attempt to contact Yulia as she fought for her life. He may have been recruited by GRU plotters in a “honey trap” in which Yulia led the assassins to her father.

Vikeev made just one call as Yulia fought for her life on the day she was attacked — to a suspected GRU intelligence service contact.

He is now believed to be “under the wing” of the spy service, which has links to his mother.

‘Sickness’ death of under-fire GRU boss Exclusive by Nick Parker SPECIAL ops mastermind Oleg Martyanov vanished as Russia announced the death of its overall foreign intelligence chief after a “prolonged illness”. GRU head Igor Korobov, 62, is said to have taken a turn for the worse after a “hair­dryer” dressing down from Putin over the once mighty organisation’s recent cock-ups. Leading roles in the GRU under the strongman president have become the most stressful, and risky, in Russia, with failure deemed intolerable. Korobov was the second GRU chief to die in two years, following the demise of his predecessor Igor Sergun in 2016 in mysterious circumstances. One version suggested Sergun died in Beirut rather than Moscow, as was officially claimed. In 2009, the body of deputy Yuri Ivanov, below, was found washed up on a Turkish beach. A general fell out of a window in 1997, a top officer was run over a year earlier and another GRU de­puty died in a car accident in 1992.

20 Matryanov's disappearance came as more evidence emerged suggesting the fiance of Yulia Skripal - pictured - was a GRU 'plant' Credit: Reuters

20 Russia's version of Q - pictured talking to journalists at the 2nd military-scientific conference Robotization of the Russian Armed Forces - had plans to build the world’s first drone submarine

20 Russia's secret state-of-the art robot army has an android gunslinger in its ranks

20 The Terminator-like killing machine shows off its shooting skills Credit: Collect

20 A Uran-9 military robot rolling down Moscow's Red Square during a night rehearsal of a Victory Day military parade in April this year Credit: Getty - Contributor

Video from Russian weapons giant Kalashnikov shows capabilities of new terrifying Soratnik killer robot tank

Mystery continues to shroud the outrage in which two GRU assassins tried to kill Skripal. But intelligence sources now believe ruthless Martyanov played a central role.

The decorated army veteran was promoted in 2013 to become the first commander of the Russian Defence Ministry’s new SOF — a reformed version of Russia’s SAS known as Spetsnaz. His prestigious post made him Russia’s version of Q, overseeing breakthroughs in cutting edge weaponry, including “extreme medical resources”.

Martyanov recently boasted of huge advances in the development of fighting robots and “invisible” bullet-proof uniforms.

A month before the Salisbury attack, he announced the launch of a project to build the world’s first drone submarine — sparking alarm among Western rivals.

20 Men identified as Ruslan Boshirov, left, and Alexander Petrov attend their first public appearance in an interview with the RT channel in Moscow Credit: AP:Associated Press

20 Picture taken at Salisbury train station in Salisbury on March 3, 2018, shows Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov Credit: Metropolitan Police Service

20 Four Russian GRU officers are being expelled from the Netherlands on April 13, 2018, for allegedly trying to hack into the UN chemical weapons watchdog OPCW's network, which was investigating the Salisbury nerve agent attack Credit: AP:Associated Press

20 Dutch Ministry of Defence released photo of a passport belonging to Evgenii Serebriakov, named as one of the four GRU officers who tried to hack the global chemical weapons watchdog Credit: PA:Press Association

20 Dutch Ministry of Defence released photo of a passport belonging to Aleksei Morenets, named as one of the four GRU officers who tried to hack the global chemical weapons watchdog Credit: PA:Press Association

20 Dutch Ministry of Defence photo of a passport belonging to Aleksei Morenets, named as one of the four GRU officers who tried to hack the global chemical weapons watchdog Credit: PA:Press Association

20 Dutch Ministry of Defence photo of a passport belonging to Oleg Sotnikov, named as one of the four GRU officers who tried to hack the global chemical weapons watchdog Credit: PA:Press Association

British UN ambassador tells Russia they live in 'parallel universe' after Novichok poisoning

But his stellar career suddenly crashed when he quietly quit “at his own request” on October 5 as details of the botched Salisbury plot were laid bare.

A source told The Sun: “Martyanov has disappeared off the face of the earth — it’s extraordinary.

“He was a war hero and a top military man in charge of an elite special operations unit, but overnight he has become a ghost.

“It’s not surprising there is speculation that his departure is linked to the Skripal attack. The timing alone speaks volumes.” Former GRU spy Skripal and Yulia nearly died when they were contaminated with Novichok sprayed on the door handle of their home in Salisbury, Wilts, on March 4.

20 The perfume bottle and applicator recovered by police at the house of Charlie Rowley - partner of Dawn Sturgess, 44, who was killed by nerve agent Novichok Credit: AP:Associated Press

Police release image of the perfume bottle containing novichok used in Salisbury poisoning of Sergei Skripal, that killed Dawn Sturgess

Weeks later the assassins’ discarded perfume bottle was found and its deadly contents killed local woman Dawn Sturgess, 44, when she sprayed it on her wrists. Military sources in Russia said an old soldiers’ oath signed decades ago by both Skripal and Martyanov lay at the root of the events in Salisbury in March.

It warns: “If I violate this solemn oath... may the harsh retribution of the Soviet law and the universal hatred and scorn of the working people befall me.”

President and ex-KGB bigwig Vladimir Putin — who has also signed the oath — has publicly declared MI6 double agent Skripal to be a “traitor” and a “scumbag” and is believed to have privately sanctioned the mission to kill him.

And Martyanov shared his master’s contempt for the turncoat who, like him, had taken the oath prior to bloody missions during the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan years earlier. Martyanov stepped down and vanished days after SOF officers Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga and Dr Alexander Mishkin were identified as the Salisbury assassins.

20 The Moscow HQ of the GRU, the military intelligence service of the Russian Federation Credit: Doug Seeburg - The Sun

They had been caught on CCTV walking near Skripal’s home after entering the UK on fake passports using the names Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov.

But Moscow sources told The Sun there was growing suspicion that the would-be killers were directed to the address using information gleaned from Yulia’s fiance Vikeev, who is four years her junior.

He swept her off her feet after meeting her at a birthday party.

But Stepan’s family were opposed to his potential marriage to the daughter of a convicted traitor.

20 Ben Whishaw, Daniel Craig and Rory Kinnear as Q, James Bond and Tanner in Spectre

His mother Tatiana Vikeev, 61, is reported to have links to the Russian secret service and refused to give her blessing to the engagement.

Yulia’s last phone call before flying to see her father in the UK in March was made to Stepan. And she was said to be heartbroken after recovering from her poison ordeal and hearing nothing from her lover and finding it impossible to contact him.

Yulia’s cousin Viktoria Skripal, 45, described Vikeev as “strange”, adding: “I am well and truly at a loss to understand Stepan’s behaviour.

“I am shocked and upset at the lack of contact from him.”

Mother Tatiana angrily refused to answer questions about his whereabouts. But a source revealed: “He has a new car and a new address and no one knows where he is.

Yulia Skripal has ​been recorded ​sp​eaking​ for the first time since she was attacked with nerve gas​ in Salisbury​

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“He has completely detached himself from his old life.”

A 60-year-old colonel who served in Afghanistan and knew both Skripal and Martyanov had no sympathy for Skripal and his ordeal. The veteran said at his home in Moscow: “Skripal is a bastard who betrayed his country for money. It’s not for me to say if he deserved to die or who was responsible.

“But he has got what he deserves now — a life of fear and suffering.”