Investigators: Navaln poisoners may be responsible for the deaths of three more people

FSB agents may be responsible for the deaths of journalist Timur Kuashev, politician Nikita Isaev and activist Ruslan Magomedragimov, according to investigators.

He followed N. Isaev, he was in Tambov

Nikita Isaev, a former leader of the New Russia movement, died in November 2019 on a train traveling from Tambov to Moscow. The official cause of death was a heart attack, but his body was cremated before the final results of the autopsy were obtained, writes Medusa.

Reuters / Photo by Scanpix / Nikita Isaev (right)

The leaked flight data shows that the agents who tracked down and poisoned A. Navalna visited the same cities as the politicians seven times a year before Isaac’s death.

Investigators found no evidence that the officers were in Tambov when N. Isaev was killed, but leaked phone metadata indicates that one of the members of the FSB group of officers visited Tambov in November 2019.

According to investigators, this suggests that the officers may have traveled to Tambov under the guise of other names or by private transport.

Coincidence for Magomedragimov?

Ruslan Magomedragimov, an activist with the Unity civic movement, was found dead in his car in the Dagestan town of Caspian in March 2015. Although there were no signs of resistance, suffocation was cited as the official cause of death. According to the activist’s relatives, there were two small marks on R. Magomedragimov’s neck, like leftovers from syringes, Medusa writes.

Bellingcat, The Insider and Der Spiegel found that FSB agent Ivan Osipov flew twice in January 2014 to Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala, as well as Vladikavkaz, just four days before Magomedragimov’s death.

FSB agent Konstantin Kudriavtsev, with whom A. Navalnas spoke by phone, also visited Vladikavkaz a week before Magomedragimov’s death.

I. Osipov was in Makhachkala several more times, according to the researchers, the fact that Magomedragimov visited the city at the same time may be just a coincidence. Journalists also admit that killing by injection in the Russian security apparatus is highly unusual.

A year after Magomedragimov’s death, Unity president Nazim Hajiev was found stabbed in his apartment. Investigators believe that the FSB has targeted Unity as a threat to national security because it advocated the annexation of some territories in Dagestan to Azerbaijan, creating an autonomous republic.

“Something went wrong”

The body of journalist and human rights activist T. Kuashev was found near the town of Nalchik on August 1, 2014. There was a mark in the armpit from the syringe, with abrasions and bruises on the face and knees. However, the official cause of death is heart failure, Medusa notes.

The investigators write that K. Kudriavcev arrived at Nalchik on July 13, I. Osipov arrived at Mineral Waters on July 22, Denis Machikin and Roman Matyushin arrived at Vladikavkaz on July 29.

Matthushin, Machikin, and Osipov had tickets back to Moscow, all of which were delayed one day. According to the researchers, this most likely indicates that something did not happen according to plan.

Investigators found that surveillance cameras between Kuushev’s home and the place where he was last seen alive were disabled on the day of his death. In addition, the Moscow Research Institute, which employs these FSB agents, analyzed blood samples from T. Kuashev.

Investigators from Bellingcat, The Insider and Der Spiegel say Kuashev was one of several independent journalists in the region and had many enemies.

He followed A. Navalns

In August last year, A. Navalnas felt bad on a plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow. The plane crashed in Omsk, the opposition was treated at a local hospital and then allowed to fly to Berlin.

Studies in laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden, as well as at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), have shown that he has been poisoned by one of the nerve paralyzing substances Novičiok, developed in the Soviet Union.

In December, A. Navalnas, posing as an FSB chemical weapons expert and assistant to the head of the Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, provoked Agent K. Kudriavtsev to tell about the operation.

The activist posted an audio clip, a transcript of the phone conversation and a video recording his conversation with K. Kudriavtsev on his blog.

The latter revealed that the strike team did not expect the pilot of the plane that A. Navaln flew from Tomsk to Moscow to land the liner in Omsk, that the target would not have survived without landing. After all, there were more poisons hidden in A. Navalnas underwear.

Investigators revealed that FSB agents have been regularly following A. Navalnas since 2017.

“These operations were close to an opposition activist in the days and hours that he was poisoned with a chemical combat weapon,” said Bellingcat, identifying 37 trips since 2017 when Navalna was followed by one or more of the agents.