Russian chemical weapons experts tailed Alexei Navalny for years before poison attack, joint report says
- FSB operatives followed the Putin critic on at least 37 occasions, according to a media investigation citing ‘volumes of data’
- ‘I know who wanted to kill me. I know where they live. I know where they work,’ Navalny says in a video describing the findings
Chemical weapons experts from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) tailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny for several years, including on the day of his poisoning, according to a joint media investigation.
Navalny, 44, was hospitalised in the Russian city of Omsk after he collapsed on a flight from Siberia to Moscow in August and then transported by medical aircraft to Berlin.
Western experts in the German capital concluded that he was poisoned with the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent – a claim that Russian officials have repeatedly denied.
The investigative website Bellingcat – together with the US network CNN, Russia’s The Insider and Germany’s Der Spiegel – published Monday a joint report revealing the names and photos of men who they say specialise in nerve agents and toxins, such as Novichok.
These men had been shadowing Navalny on a regular basis since 2017, Bellingcat concluded based on “volumes of data”, including phone logs and travel records.
“These operatives were in the vicinity of the opposition activist in the days and hours of the time-range during which he was poisoned with a military-grade chemical weapon,” Bellingcat said after identifying 37 trips when Navalny was followed by one or more of these agents since 2017.