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Navalny talks to FSB officer Kudryavtsev, in the background is Bellingcat investigator Hristo Grozev (Photo: Navalny.com/Social Media via REUTERS)
The story of Alexei Navalny’s poisoning caught the world’s attention again, after the opponent launched a surprising conversation with an FSB officer who is likely involved in this crime.
On December 21, Navalny published a record and a history of his call to FSB officer Konstantin Kudryavtsev, a military chemist who was part of the alleged group of special officers who had been following the leader of the opposition for several years.
For more than 40 minutes, Navalny spoke with Kudryavtsev, posing as Nikolai Patrushev’s assistant. (Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and former head of the FSB) and demanding an urgent oral report on the failure of the poisoning operation. As a result, Kudryavtsev revealed the details of the assassination attempt, which only its participants could know: He named several more defendants; He talked about how he took twice for «cleaning ”Omsk’s opponent’s clothes and for the first time mentioned how Novichok could have been used – apparently, they put him in Navalny’s underwear.
The call was made on December 14, even before Bellingcat and various global media outlets published their massive investigation into a group of suspected «poisoners “Navalny. And on December 21, Bellingcat published a detailed analysis of the opposition’s call to Kudryavtsev, pointing out the coinciding facts in his confessions and the findings of independent investigators.
The FSB called the phone conversation false and a “planned provocation”, but many major European and American media outlets published material about it.
NV picked up the foreign press reaction to this revealing twist in the Navalny case, now called a resounding failure of the FSB.
“A story like a Bond movie”: why the call is called unprecedented
The authors of many publications separately emphasize the significant and unprecedented step that Navalny took in calling one of his alleged «poisoners. “
German DW characterizes the episode as a story “more like a James Bond movie than real life.” Spiegel magazine describes it as follows: “Last week, early Monday morning, Alexei Navalny did something unusual for a victim of an assassination attempt. He called his probable killers. “
The American New York Times writes in this regard that Navalny has long been famous for his taunts. «about the vast system of special services in his country “, but the newspaper calls Kudryavtsev «perhaps his boldest move. “The publication recalls that the FSB previously worked as the KGB under the leadership of Vladimir Putin and became «the dominant force behind the scenes in Russian politics and business. “” The call, released by Navalny on December 21, added to a wealth of evidence that the service orchestrated, and failed, an assassination attempt by the most prominent opposition politician in the country, “said the NYT.
Frenchman Le Monde adds that it was as a result of Navalny’s call that the world probably received «the first reliable information on how the poison was introduced. “The Spanish El Mundo similarly writes that «Kudryavtsev’s answers are the first direct evidence of the involvement of the FSB unit in the Navalny poisoning».
Mark Galeotti, British investigator for the Russian intelligence services and author of the book Thieves. The history of organized crime in Russia, in a comment by the BBC Russian Service, mentioned what happened «absolutely unprecedented. “
«There are always leaks, nothing stays secret forever, as history with the Skripals has shown. You can identify specific artists, this can lead to a variety of consequences. But I don’t recall a single situation in which the victim of an attempted attempt contacted the perpetrator of this attempt and persuaded him to tell the story, ”Galeotti emphasized.
“Undermines the image of the FSB as one of the world’s leading intelligence services”: what does this turn of events mean for the Kremlin?
Various media outlets paid particular attention to what the supposedly failed operation to poison Navalny means, and now the sudden release of the details of this story to the FSB and the Kremlin, and «first hand ”, from one of the team members.
«Recent journalistic investigations into the August poisoning of Alexei Navalny in Russia were not limited to collecting information exposing the FSB: they are now complemented by a series of humiliations for Russian special services, “writes French Le Monde, implicating Navalny’s call to Kudryavtsev, CNN’s visit to the apartment of one of the “poisoners” and a full-scale investigation Bellingcat collaborates with various global media outlets.
The newspaper calls these revelations «impressive “development of the story and states that navalny joke «not only is this a new insult to the FSB, but it also further weakens the Russian defense line “… After all, Moscow still refuses even to start an official investigation, continuing to present a variety of versions of the Navalny case. “During a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin even mentioned a version of self-poisoning,” recalls Le Mond.
It is not surprising if the conversation made public by Navalny turns out to be true, says the Moscow correspondent for the Dutch public broadcaster NOS. “Absolutely crazy things are happening more and more at the FSB… Sometimes they are reckless and not very careful with information. But now they are in big trouble, ”says the NOS correspondent.
The New York Times calls the phone conversation mind-blowing «a new episode that destroys the aura of power and professionalism of the Russian intelligence servicesin stark contrast to news of a large-scale cyberattack in the US. [на американские правительственные учреждения]attributed to Russian hackers. “
«This once again forced the Kremlin to adopt a defensive stance against the Navalny poisoning, an event that becomes a turning point for President Vladimir Putin, who is entering his 22nd year in power, ”notes the NYT.
The publication predicts that the opponent’s resounding conversation with Kudryavtsev «It will surely raise new questions about Navalny, undermining the FSB’s image as one of the world’s leading intelligence services. “
The BBC’s Russian service cites comments from British and Russian investigators from the Russian special services; They both claim that the facts revealed after Navalny’s call speak volumes about the situation at Russia’s FSB.
«For the entire institution, the fact that this is the level of internal security, compliance with rules, planning and conducting operations … I can’t even begin to list how bad everything is, “says Andrey Soldatov, editor in chief of the Agentura.ru website, co-author of books New nobility and Our among strangers on special services of the Russian Federation.
In his opinion, the main problem «thing is […] Many years ago, it was decided that when choosing between efficiency and dedication, dedication is valued more. “” Because when people are professionals, they tend to ask unnecessary questions. And here we see, and have seen it for many years, that Artists are chosen by people who will never ask questions.“, – says Soldatov about the employees involved in the operations of the FSB.
Mark Galeotti, a British investigator for Russia’s military and intelligence services, finds the whole story of the Navalny poisoning as shameful for the FSB.
«It’s a great shame. […] Navalny was able to demonstrate how much top-secret information is available on the darknet: phone numbers, names, everything else. And that all this can be used to identify people. And what’s more, getting them to talk about their work is amazing! “- Galeotti notes.
He also calls three reasons that helped the Russian opposition realize a seemingly impossible idea – call «undercover “from one of his likely poisoners.
First, Galeotti urges, it is worth remembering that the FSB is the main service that deals primarily with internal security. “They are political policemen. So they are not opposed to global counterintelligence services, so they may not have set such strict security rules, “he says.
Second, recalls the British researcher, the FSBs themselves call themselves «not nobility, “so it could play a role «an element of a certain arrogance. “” Third, this is the first time that the FSB has come across this kind of research that Bellingcat and its partners are doing. I’m sure they are as amazed as all of you. We can assume that now the FSB will become much more cautious, ”suggests Galeotti.
It also claims that the world is entering a new era, when all the world’s intelligence services are faced with something similar. “No one is used to having such volumes of information freely accessible. For the FSB, what happened was a wake-up call in a very harsh way ”, summarizes Galeotti.
