Putin’s “poison” fell into the trap – which set him the target of assassination

The dramatic conversation, which lasted a full 45 minutes, is according to CNN the first testimony to date that confirms the results of the journalistic investigation published last week, by her and other media outlets, including the German “Der Spiegel” and the investigative website Bellingcat.

The dramatic investigation revealed that a team of between six and ten agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB (heir to the Soviet KGB), has been following since 2017 Navalny, an opposition figure considered one of Russia’s most critical and influential voices against President Vladimir Putin’s dictatorial rule. , Who has been accused more than once in the past of attempting to poison or eliminate his opponents.

According to the investigation, based on flight data and location data transmitted by cell phones, members of this unit were near Nabalani when he was poisoned last August. The investigation mentioned the details of the team members, and said that they have special training in chemical weapons and medicine. He also detailed the laboratories in which the substance with which Nablani was poisoned was created.

Navalny, it will be recalled, collapsed in August during a flight from the city of Tomsk in Siberia – where he met with political activists. The plane making its way to Moscow made an emergency landing in another city in Siberia, Omsk. After doctors in Russia – perhaps under pressure from the security forces – announced that they had found no signs of being poisoned, Navalny was flown under pressure by officials in the West to treat Germany. He has already been discharged from a hospital in Berlin and is now undergoing rehabilitation in a secret location in Germany, although he has stated that he intends to return to his country.

Based on tests conducted in Germany, it was determined that it was poisoned with “Novichuk”, a deadly chemical produced in the Soviet Union and used over the years for attempted poisoning against some of the regime’s opponents in Russia. Sources in the West have pointed the finger of blame at the Russian government, and the European Union has even imposed sanctions on some of Putin’s associates.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied involvement in the poisoning, and last week Putin himself mocked the conclusions of that international inquiry, saying with ridicule that if the Russian authorities wanted to eliminate Navalny, they would “finish the job.” In his remarks, Putin hinted that there was indeed a follow-up to Nabalani, saying that this was necessary because Nabalani allegedly maintains ties with intelligence officials in the West.

Now, however, dramatic evidence seems to have arrived that contradicts the Russian president’s claims. From his secret place in Germany, Navalny managed to sting one of the squad members identified in the journalistic investigation, a man named Konstantin Kudryabtsev, who according to the investigation is a chemical and biological weapons expert who previously served at the Russian Defense Ministry’s biological defense research center.

Navalny allegedly managed to sting Kudryabtsev by calling him from a number he impersonated as belonging to the Federal Security Service headquarters. Navalny introduced himself in the conversation as a senior official who was tasked with providing “a quick understanding from the team members: what went wrong? Why was there a complete failure in Tomsk with Navalny?”.

Kudryabtsev hesitates to reveal details in the unsecured phone call, but Navalny managed to convince him to reveal dramatic details nonetheless by speaking in a determined and urgent tone. He told Kudryabtsev that the details of the conversation would be raised later for discussion at the “highest level of the Defense Council”.

In such a conversation, Kudryabtsev reveals where the poison was buried, in Navalny’s underwear. “Please tell me, on which item of clothing did you focus the most? What area, in theory, is the most dangerous to discover?” “Underwear,” Kudryabtsev replies, and Navalny continues to demand more details. “Where in the panties? In the inner seam? In the outer seam?”. The agent who fell into the trap replies: “On the inside, we worked on that.”

An interesting detail that Kudryavtsev reveals is that what may have been the factor that disrupted the assassination operation was the emergency landing made by the Russian plane, after Navalny collapsed during the flight to Moscow while screaming in pain. “This is a three-hour flight, this is a long flight,” Kudryabtsev said in a phone call. “If you don’t land the plane then the effect was different and the result was different. That’s why I think the plane played a significant role.”

According to CNN, which is said to be a partner in the international investigation, it has no evidence that Kudryabtsev was indeed in Tomsk, Siberia when the poison was allegedly buried in Navalny’s underwear, but in the conversation he provided details showing that he knew about what happened there.

In the conversation, Kudryavtsev reveals that he was sent twice to Omsk – the city where Nabalani was taken to the hospital – in order to clean Nabalani’s clothes and make sure there was not even a trace of chemical traces. “So that there will be no surprises on the clothes?”, The impostor villain asks him. “That’s why we went there several times,” Kudryabtsev replies.

He says he first arrived in Omsk on August 25, five days after the poisoning, and the second time about a week later. He said that the first time he came to Omsk, there was someone in the hospital in Siberia who also took care of cleaning the body of an unconscious villain from traces of the poison. According to Bellingcat, Navalny and his men have demanded his clothes back, but Russian authorities have refused to do so to this day.