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The leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny, released today a recording of a phone call he said he made to a suspected state security agent, who revealed some details of how the politician was allegedly poisoned and identified by the media as member of a team that has supposedly followed Navalny for years.
Still of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaking while launching a recorded conversation with a suspected FSB state security agent on his YouTube page. Source: Associated Press
The man in the recording indicated that he was involved in cleaning Navalny’s clothes “so that no trace would remain” after the main critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin fell into a coma during a domestic flight over Siberia. During the recorded call, the man said that if the plane had not made an emergency landing, “the situation would have turned out differently.”
The man, who was named in a news report last week as an operative for Russia’s FSB national security agency, pointed to Navalny’s underwear as a place where the substance that poisoned the politician may have been planted.
Navalny fell ill during the August 20 flight in Russia and was flown to Berlin while still in a coma for treatment two days later. Laboratories in Germany, France, and Sweden, and testing by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.
The Russian authorities have vehemently denied any involvement in the poisoning.
Last week, the Bellingcat research group released a report alleging that agents from Russia’s FSB national security agency followed Navalny during his travels since 2017, had “specialized training in chemical weapons, chemistry and medicine” and some of them were “in the vicinity”. de Navalny in the time period “during which he was poisoned”.
The investigation, conducted by Bellingcat and Russian media outlet The Insider in cooperation with CNN and German media outlet Der Spiegel, identified suspected FSB operatives after analyzing phone metadata and flight information.
Navalny, who is convalescing in Germany, said the report proved beyond any doubt that FSB agents tried to kill him on Putin’s orders. He posted a video on his YouTube channel today titled “I called my killer. He confessed. “
The video showed him speaking on the phone with one of the alleged operatives. Bellingcat and other media outlets identified the man Navalny said he spoke with as Konstantin Kudryavtsev, a trained chemical weapons specialist. The investigation alleges that Kudryavtsev traveled to Omsk, the Siberian city where the plane carrying Navalny when he fell ill made an emergency landing and where the comatose politician was hospitalized for the first time, several days after Navalny was flown to Berlin
Navalny said he called the alleged FSB operative hours before the Bellingcat report was published. Navalny introduced himself as an aide to Russia’s Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev and said he urgently needed to inform the man about what had happened in another Siberian city, Tomsk, where the politician believes he was poisoned.
The conversation lasted 45 minutes, Navalny said. Bellingcat and The Insider released the full recording and transcripts.
The man on the other end of the call indicated that he was involved in “processing” Navalny’s clothing so that “there would be no trace.” The clothes Navalny wore when he was hospitalized in a coma have not been returned.
The man acknowledged knowing several other alleged FSB operatives mentioned in the Bellingcat investigation. At times, he was reluctant to speak on an unsecured line, but continued to answer Navalny’s questions without calling the politician by name or naming the toxic substance to which he was exposed.
While posing as a Security Council aide, the politician asked “what went wrong” and why Navalny survived the poisoning. The man on the other side replied “everything would have gone differently” if the plane had not made the emergency landing and “if not (it had been) for the prompt work of the ambulance doctors on the runway”.
When Navalny asked which item of clothing had the highest concentration of the toxin, the man said it was underwear. He suggested that the substance was “quickly absorbed” and thus no traces of it could be found on the politician’s body.
The man also indicated that he was aware of the international scandal that followed Navalny’s illness: “I also watch television and read the internet. They weren’t expecting all this, I’m sure it all went wrong. “
The Associated Press was unable to independently verify the identity of the man Navalny spoke to in the video or his claims. The FSB told the Russian state news agency Tass that the recording Navalny released was false.
The video received more than 5.5 million views on YouTube within hours of its publication.
Earlier this month, Russian officials ignored the investigation by Bellingcat and other media outlets.
Putin accused last week that the investigation was based on data provided by US spy agencies. Its authors have denied any link to the United States or any other Western intelligence service.
“It is not some kind of investigation, it is only the legalization of materials provided by the special services of the United States,” the Russian leader alleged during his annual press conference. He said that means Navalny “has the support of the United States special services.”
“It’s funny, and in that case, the special services should watch it,” Putin said. “But that doesn’t mean it is necessary to poison him. Who would need that?
Navalny, who is an anti-corruption investigator as well as a politician, is one of the Kremlin’s fiercest critics. His Foundation to Fight Corruption has been exposing corruption among government officials, including some at the highest level.
The most prominent member of the Russian opposition, Navalny, campaigned to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election, but was banned from running. He established a network of campaign offices throughout Russia and has since put forward opposition candidates in regional elections, increasingly pressuring members of Russia’s ruling United Russia party.
