Years before a Russian poison group nearly killed Alexei Navalny by allegedly planting a Novichok-like nerve agent in his boxing shorts, the same group shared its skills with other Russian opposition figures, according to a new Bellingcat report.
The same agents who, according to Bellingcat Navalny chased, chased and spied for more than three years, also chased three other Russian dissidents, including Kremlin critic and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who, like the murdered Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, contributed to The Washington Post.
Kara-Murza was poisoned twice, and both incidents left him in a prolonged coma while his life organs closed. Like Navalny’s alleged poisoning, Russian authorities refused to investigate the attacks on Kara-Murza despite international shouts.
According to the Bellingcat report, two Russian hospitals and three independent investigations have concluded that Kara-Murza was poisoned by an unidentified substance.
Using travel records, Bellingcat concluded that the same FSB poison group that followed Navalny also showed up months before his first poisoning in 2015 for months where Kara-Murza was and followed him again until he was poisoned in 2017. “The number of coincident journeys – seven destinations with 14 overlapping flights – makes an accidental overlap statistically unlikely,” according to the Bellingcat report. At least once, while following the journalist, the group was accompanied by Roman Mezentsev, who headed the FSB’s Directorate for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism. Bellingcat says Mezentsev was a close ally of Vladislav Surkov, Putin’s former adviser known in Kremlin circles as The Gray Cardinal.
At least two members of the same poison group reportedly dragged Russian anti-corruption activist Nikita Isaev in the weeks before he died on a train ride from Tambov to Moscow in 2019.
The investigation team says they focused on the poisoning activity of the FSB outside Moscow because the overlap between the agents and the potential victims is more difficult to refute, but this does not exclude that the agents prefer to kill far from home. not. ‘This may be due to the supposed inferior quality of emergency medical services in those regions; due to the relative ease of access to the hotel room of a target during travel; or even as a result of expected long-distance travel through their targets during which medical care would be hampered, ”reports Bellingcat. However, the perceived preference of the FSB group for ‘poisonings outside Moscow’ can be used as a proxy to also determine the possible complicity in the operations in Moscow. It can be logically assumed – and this is confirmed by data in the Navalny and Isaev cases – that the group has at least a few months’ goal of a political assassination before launching a hit. ‘
Because Kara-Murza received treatment for his poisoning in the US, The Washington Post called on Biden’s government to release information on the substance used and whether it was banned, which could open the door to sanctions or more. Late last month, the Post editors wrote that since the bureau ‘is investigating this matter as a matter of willful poisoning’, it should disclose the details. “It refused to disclose the results of its laboratory tests, which could show whether Mr Kara-Murza, like Mr Navalny and other Kremlin targets, was attacked with a banned chemical weapon.”
The Post Members of Congress also successfully submitted a petition, including Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is a senior member of the intelligence committee who will be familiar with the details of the case. “Given the number of attacks on opponents of the Kremlin and the need to hold the Putin regime accountable, this is unacceptable,” he said. Post editorial written. ‘Incoming Attorney General Merrick Garland must order the FBI to disclose what he said of Mr. Kara-Murza knows. ‘