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Alexei Navalny, leader of the Russian opposition, discovered all the details about the poisoning itself by posing as a senior Russian official. The recording of the phone call in which the FSB agent Konstantin Kudryavtsev revealed the details was published on his YouTube channel. The chemist, Novichok, positioned himself at the seams of the opponent’s underwear.
Navalny pretended to be a member of the Russian Security Council, using the fictitious name of Maxim Ustinov, an “adviser to the [Presidente do Conselho de Segurança da Rússia] Nikolai Patrushev “and asked the officers for an oral report explaining why the operation had failed. After several calls, only the last one from Agent Kudryavtsev was successful. Konstantin Kudryavtsev graduated from the Russian Academy of Chemical Defense and works for the Ministry of Defense. Defense, questioning it, the politician found that the poison used was Novichok, the famous Russian chemical weapon.
In the conversation, which lasted 49 minutes, on December 14, Alexei used an application that modifies the caller ID, pretending that the phone call came from the Federal Security Service (FSB), the agency that succeeded the KGB. Thinking he was talking to a security officer and persuaded by the fact that superiors were demanding a full report, Officer Konstantin Kudryavtsev confessed that Novichok was placed in the seams of his underwear near the groin when Navalny was visiting the Tomsk city. A team from the Ministry of Defense deactivated the surveillance cameras of the hotel where he was staying and infiltrated the opponent’s room to apply the poison to his underpants.
As he revealed, the substance acted two days after being placed, already on board a plane en route to Moscow, when it joined the sweat of the body itself. The agent, who belonged to the specialization team in toxicology of the secret services, stressed by telephone that Alexei Navalny only survived thanks to the quick action of the pilot of the plane and the medical team that assisted him immediately in Siberia. He also confirmed that he traveled to the site to make sure the opponent’s clothing was removed, as well as the clues that identified Novichok’s use.
The investigation by the independent Russian website Bellingcat found that the agent traveled twice after the event, on August 25 and October 2, 2020. Telephone records also reveal that during that time he was in regular contact with Stanislav Makshakov, colonel and commander. direct from the FSB squad. The order to put the substance in underwear was his, Kudryavtsev said, during the call. Alexey Alexandrov and Ivan Osipov, another agent, were accused of being the perpetrators of the poisoning, as they were both in Tomsk at the time of the attack.
Following the poisoning, which nearly resulted in Navalny’s death aboard a plane on August 20, the victim was flown to Berlin, where he is recovering and living. The way Navelny obtained the information raised some ethical questions, but “this action clearly falls within the domain of the highest public interest, in light of extraordinary circumstances,” says Bellingcat, the investigative journalism website. It also highlights that Alexei does not work for the police, security service
or conduct a journalistic investigation. “He was in a unique position to investigate his own assassination attempt, at a time when no law enforcement agency is willing to do so,” he says.
Russia remains silent on the recent revelations. Just a week ago, Putin said it was right for him that the security team wanted to be aware of all the movements of Alexei Navalny, claiming that Navalny was cooperating with US intelligence services. He denied the involvement of the FSB in the poisoning case, recalls Bellingcat.
The Russian security services classified the recording as “a forgery” and “a provocation” because it did not provide proof of the identity of the interlocutor. “The so-called investigation of the actions allegedly carried out against him [que foi] posted online by Navalny is a planned provocation to discredit the FSB and officials of the federal security service, which would not have been possible without the organizational and technical support of foreign special services, “the organization said in a statement, cited by CNN.
The Kremlin accused the Russian opponent of suffering “delusions of persecution” for accusing the Moscow security services of poisoning. “I allow myself to express a personal opinion: [Navalny] he clearly suffers from a disease, a delusion of persecution and (…) he has symptoms of megalomania, ”says Dmitri Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman. you cannot discredit “the services.
Sanctions applied to European countries by Russia
Russia announced on Tuesday that it will impose sanctions on European countries in light of the measures taken in the event of poisoning by Alexei Navalny. Moscow’s diplomacy says it will “expand the list of representatives of the member countries of the European Union who are prevented from entering the territory of the Russian Federation.”
The German Foreign Ministry considers the sanctions to be “unjustified”. Poisoning “is not a bilateral issue, but an issue with an international dimension because it is an attack on international law, carried out with a neurotoxic chemical substance,” he explains. It also requires Russia to clarify the use of a military-type substance on a Russian citizen on its own territory.
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