TWO bungling Russian GRU officers were identified as the Salisbury assassins after being spotted on earlier clandestine missions, it has emerged.

Police matched CCTV images of the killers in the Wiltshire town with earlier MI6 and GCHQ surveillance footage.

7 Police yesterday named two agents, using the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, as those suspected of the bungled assassination Credit: Metropolitan Police Service

They had previously been identified as members of Russia’s military intelligence service during spy operations carried out elsewhere in Europe.

In what one Whitehall source dubbed “a brilliant joined-up operation”, expert police spotters made the match while trawling through thousands of new and old images.

The men - using the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – are suspected to work for the GRU’s Spetsnaz wing.

Meaning ‘Special Purpose’, the wing carries out dangerous missions overseas such as assassinations - known as ‘wet jobs’.

7 The pair were caught on CCTV in Salisbury Credit: PA:Press Association

7 Intended target Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Julia, survived because the nerve agent sprayed on his door handle washed away in the rain Credit: Enterprise News and Pictures

The discovery was made months ago, The Sun has also learned.

But British intelligence chiefs sat on the information hoping the pair would resurface within the EU again – offering British cops the chance to arrest them with a European Arrest Warrant.

Allowing themselves to be so readily identified as GRU operators was declared “an appalling piece of tradecraft” by one Whitehall source Thursday night.

It was one of a series of amateurish GRU bungles that beset the Salisbury assassination bid, as well as a series of other botched ops in recent years.

7 Police cordoned off parts of Salisbury after the poisoned Skripals were discovered Credit: Darren Fletcher - The Sun

7 The investigation started again when two bystanders were poisoned Credit: Getty Images - Getty

Another major gaffe in the Salisbury attack was the failure to realise that rain on the day they targeted MI6 agent Sergei Skripal would dilute the intensity of the Novichok smeared over his front door handle – the fluke that saved his life.

Senior intelligence figures also dubbed the use of the military grade nerve agent as “overly theatrical”, as there were many more far simpler assassination methods.

Whitehall sources also mocked the two officers for using a counterfeit Nina Ricci perfume, saying: “They couldn’t even have the class to use a real one”.

MI6 know their real names, but don’t want to spark a tit for tat naming, and expect Russian media to do that anyway.

7 Dawn Sturgess died after her boyfriend Charlie Rowley found a perfume bottle of Novichok Credit: AFP

7 The UK blamed Russia for the poisoning during a meeting of the UN on Thursday Credit: EPA

In other bungled GRU operations, the calamitous service were held responsible for downing a Malaysian passenger airliner over eastern Ukraine in 2014 – mistaking it for a military cargo plane.

GRU officers were also tied to a failed coup attempt in Montenegro the same year.

MPs also openly mocked the GRU’s disastrous failings.

Security Minister Ben Wallace dubbed the Salisbury operation “more Johnny English than James Bond”.

most read in uk news Latest DOWN TO BUSINESS Chancellor to launch 'furlough replacement' tomorrow as Budget CANCELLED Latest CASES CLIMB UK coronavirus cases rise by 6,178 in 24 hours in the third highest day EVER COP ATTACK Eleven firearm cops injured in horrific ‘acid attack’ during armed drugs raid 'REST IN PEACE & purple sequins' Money for Nothing star EJ Osborne dead at the age of 45 CLUB FURY Footballer who beat girlfriend & forced her to eat paint signs to new club WINTER COMING England may have to ban home visits too as SAGE adviser warns lockdown coming

Former Army officer-turned-Tory MP Johnny Mercer said: “I hope this toilet tradecraft will help reduce the perception that Russia is some intelligence/military behemoth to be cowered from.

“Putin should be treated with the disdain he deserves - a dull thug running a mafia state. Tragic for the Russian people.”

Timeline of movements of Russian nationals Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov who are suspected of conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, Wiltshire