Post by Jaga on Dec 21, 2020 7:07:19 GMT -7
Navalny was able to dupe the spy who was tailgating him
www.cnn.com/2020/12/21/europe/russia-navalny-poisoning-underpants-ward/index.html
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny dupes spy into revealing how he was poisoned
Watch Clarissa Ward and the latest on the revelations about Navalny's poisoning and its aftermath, on Anderson Cooper 360˚ tonight on CNN at 8 ET.
Moscow (CNN)A Russian agent sent to tail opposition leader Alexey Navalny has revealed how he was poisoned in August -- with the lethal nerve agent Novichok planted in his underpants.
The stunning disclosure from an agent who belonged to an elite toxins team in Russia's FSB security service came in a lengthy phone call following the unmasking of the unit by CNN and the online investigative outfit Bellingcat last week.
In what he was told was a debriefing, Konstantin Kudryavtsev also talked about others involved in the poisoning in the Siberian city of Tomsk, and how he was sent to clean things up.
.
Konstantin Kudryavtsev revealed he traveled to Omsk in Siberia to try to clean up evidence after Alexey Navalny was poisoned.
But the agent was not speaking to an official in Russia's National Security Council as he thought. He was talking to Navalny himself, who almost died after being poisoned in August.
Navalny has long been a thorn in the side of President Vladimir Putin, exposing corruption in high places and campaigning against the ruling United Russia party.
Putin essentially confirmed last week that FSB agents tailed Navalny but said if Russia had wanted him dead, "they would've probably finished it."
Oleg Tayakin opened the door to CNN but closed it as soon as he was asked about his role in tailing Navalny.
The Bellingcat-CNN investigation found that the FSB toxins team of about six to 10 agents trailed Navalny for more than three years. After identifying most of the team, CNN and Bellingcat tried to contact them and their superiors.
One man, Oleg Tayakin, slammed the door shut when questioned by CNN. Others did not respond.
At the same time, Navalny was also making calls. To begin with, he told the agents who he was, and those he contacted immediately ended the call. For the final call to Kudryavtsev, his team decided on a different approach: a sting operation.
How Navalny did it
Navalny, who is still recovering at a secret location in Germany, posed as a senior official from Russia's National Security Council tasked with carrying out an analysis of the poisoning operation. His phone number was disguised as that of the headquarters of the FSB, according to Navalny's team and a recording of the call later provided to CNN and Bellingcat.
Alexey Navalny, speaking brusquely and urgently, convinced Kudryavtsev he was an official reviewing the operation.
Alexey Navalny, speaking brusquely and urgently, convinced Kudryavtsev he was an official reviewing the operation.
After Kudryavtsev confirmed his identity, Navalny said he'd been tasked with getting "a brief understanding from the team members: what went wrong, why was there a complete failure in Tomsk with Navalny?"
Kudryavtsev's responses in the 45-minute call provide the first direct evidence of the unit's involvement in poisoning Navalny.
At times he is clearly apprehensive about talking on an unsecured line but Navalny, speaking at times in a brusque and urgent way, persuades him that senior officials are demanding a report immediately and says that "all of this will be discussed at the Security Council on the highest level."
Why underwear was targeted
Most dramatically Kudryavtsev provided a detailed account of how the nerve agent was applied to a pair of Navalny's underpants.
Navalny asked: "What item of clothing was the emphasis on? What is the most risky piece of clothing?"
Kudryavtsev replied simply: "Underpants."
Navalny followed by asking exactly where the Novichok was applied -- the inside or outside seams.
"The insides, the crotch," replied Kudryavtsev.
CNN-Bellingcat investigation identifies Russian specialists who trailed Putin's nemesis Alexey Navalny before he was poisoned
CNN-Bellingcat investigation identifies Russian specialists who trailed Putin's nemesis Alexey Navalny before he was poisoned
Toxicologists consulted by CNN say that if applied in granular form to clothes, the Novichok would be absorbed through the skin when the victim begins to sweat.
They say that, in this instance, it appears the assailants used a solid form of the nerve agent, rather than a liquid or gel as had previously been detected in the attack against former double agent Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom.
The investigation by Bellingcat and CNN used thousands of phone records plus flight manifests and other documents obtained by Bellingcat to track the team of toxin experts. It established that, on the night the Novichok somehow got into Navalny's hotel room, there was a ping from a cell phone belonging to one of the toxin team, Alexei Alexandrov, just a few hundred yards from the hotel.
Kudryavtsev acknowledged knowing Alexandrov and praised his work.
Unexpected outcome
CNN cannot confirm that Kudryavtsev was also in Tomsk when the poison was applied. But the call showed he had intimate knowledge of what was done and that he was involved in the cleanup operation to ensure there were no traces of Novichok left after Navalny had left the hospital.
Navalny was treated by paramedics within minutes of the unscheduled landing in Omsk.
Navalny was treated by paramedics within minutes of the unscheduled landing in Omsk.
Navalny fell suddenly ill on a flight home to Moscow and the pilot diverted to Omsk, where he received lifesaving emergency treatment from paramedics.
Had the plane flown on to Moscow, Navalny would almost certainly have died, according to experts in toxicology consulted by CNN.
"The flight is about three hours, this is a long flight," Kudryavtsev said. "If you don't land the plane the effect would've been different and the result would've been different. So I think the plane played the decisive part."
"[We] didn't expect all this would happen. I'm sure that everything went wrong," Kudryavtsev added -- suggesting that the FSB's intent was to kill Navalny, as many toxicologists familiar with Novichok have said.
When pushed as to whether the wrong dose of poison could have been administered, Kudryavtsev countered: "As I understand it, we added bit extra."
The cleanup job
Kudryavtsev's background suggests he is a specialist in chemical and biological weapons. He graduated from the Moscow branch of the Russian Academy of Chemical Defense. Bellingcat has established he later worked at the 42nd center of the Ministry of Defense -- its biological security research center.
The Bellingcat-CNN investigation, that also involved German magazine Der Spiegel and Russian online publication The Insider, had already established through flight manifests that Kudryavtsev had flown to Omsk on August 25, five days after the poisoning.
Putin responds to CNN investigation, does not deny Navalny was tracked
Putin responds to CNN investigation, does not deny Navalny was tracked 03:36
"When we arrived, they gave them to us, the local Omsk guys brought [them] with the police," Kudryavtsev said on the call. He added they had applied solutions, so that there were no traces left on the clothes.
"So there won't be any surprises with the clothes?" asked Navalny.
"That's why we went there several times," Kudryavtsev replied.
Navalny and his team have several times demanded that his clothes be returned to him, but Russian authorities have refused.
Later, Kudryavtsev says, "I was told to work precisely with the underpants, on the inside."
Navalny asked: "Who said that? Makshakov?"
"Yeah," answered Kudryavtsev.
www.cnn.com/2020/12/21/europe/russia-navalny-poisoning-underpants-ward/index.html
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny dupes spy into revealing how he was poisoned
Watch Clarissa Ward and the latest on the revelations about Navalny's poisoning and its aftermath, on Anderson Cooper 360˚ tonight on CNN at 8 ET.
Moscow (CNN)A Russian agent sent to tail opposition leader Alexey Navalny has revealed how he was poisoned in August -- with the lethal nerve agent Novichok planted in his underpants.
The stunning disclosure from an agent who belonged to an elite toxins team in Russia's FSB security service came in a lengthy phone call following the unmasking of the unit by CNN and the online investigative outfit Bellingcat last week.
In what he was told was a debriefing, Konstantin Kudryavtsev also talked about others involved in the poisoning in the Siberian city of Tomsk, and how he was sent to clean things up.
.
Konstantin Kudryavtsev revealed he traveled to Omsk in Siberia to try to clean up evidence after Alexey Navalny was poisoned.
But the agent was not speaking to an official in Russia's National Security Council as he thought. He was talking to Navalny himself, who almost died after being poisoned in August.
Navalny has long been a thorn in the side of President Vladimir Putin, exposing corruption in high places and campaigning against the ruling United Russia party.
Putin essentially confirmed last week that FSB agents tailed Navalny but said if Russia had wanted him dead, "they would've probably finished it."
Oleg Tayakin opened the door to CNN but closed it as soon as he was asked about his role in tailing Navalny.
The Bellingcat-CNN investigation found that the FSB toxins team of about six to 10 agents trailed Navalny for more than three years. After identifying most of the team, CNN and Bellingcat tried to contact them and their superiors.
One man, Oleg Tayakin, slammed the door shut when questioned by CNN. Others did not respond.
At the same time, Navalny was also making calls. To begin with, he told the agents who he was, and those he contacted immediately ended the call. For the final call to Kudryavtsev, his team decided on a different approach: a sting operation.
How Navalny did it
Navalny, who is still recovering at a secret location in Germany, posed as a senior official from Russia's National Security Council tasked with carrying out an analysis of the poisoning operation. His phone number was disguised as that of the headquarters of the FSB, according to Navalny's team and a recording of the call later provided to CNN and Bellingcat.
Alexey Navalny, speaking brusquely and urgently, convinced Kudryavtsev he was an official reviewing the operation.
Alexey Navalny, speaking brusquely and urgently, convinced Kudryavtsev he was an official reviewing the operation.
After Kudryavtsev confirmed his identity, Navalny said he'd been tasked with getting "a brief understanding from the team members: what went wrong, why was there a complete failure in Tomsk with Navalny?"
Kudryavtsev's responses in the 45-minute call provide the first direct evidence of the unit's involvement in poisoning Navalny.
At times he is clearly apprehensive about talking on an unsecured line but Navalny, speaking at times in a brusque and urgent way, persuades him that senior officials are demanding a report immediately and says that "all of this will be discussed at the Security Council on the highest level."
Why underwear was targeted
Most dramatically Kudryavtsev provided a detailed account of how the nerve agent was applied to a pair of Navalny's underpants.
Navalny asked: "What item of clothing was the emphasis on? What is the most risky piece of clothing?"
Kudryavtsev replied simply: "Underpants."
Navalny followed by asking exactly where the Novichok was applied -- the inside or outside seams.
"The insides, the crotch," replied Kudryavtsev.
CNN-Bellingcat investigation identifies Russian specialists who trailed Putin's nemesis Alexey Navalny before he was poisoned
CNN-Bellingcat investigation identifies Russian specialists who trailed Putin's nemesis Alexey Navalny before he was poisoned
Toxicologists consulted by CNN say that if applied in granular form to clothes, the Novichok would be absorbed through the skin when the victim begins to sweat.
They say that, in this instance, it appears the assailants used a solid form of the nerve agent, rather than a liquid or gel as had previously been detected in the attack against former double agent Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom.
The investigation by Bellingcat and CNN used thousands of phone records plus flight manifests and other documents obtained by Bellingcat to track the team of toxin experts. It established that, on the night the Novichok somehow got into Navalny's hotel room, there was a ping from a cell phone belonging to one of the toxin team, Alexei Alexandrov, just a few hundred yards from the hotel.
Kudryavtsev acknowledged knowing Alexandrov and praised his work.
Unexpected outcome
CNN cannot confirm that Kudryavtsev was also in Tomsk when the poison was applied. But the call showed he had intimate knowledge of what was done and that he was involved in the cleanup operation to ensure there were no traces of Novichok left after Navalny had left the hospital.
Navalny was treated by paramedics within minutes of the unscheduled landing in Omsk.
Navalny was treated by paramedics within minutes of the unscheduled landing in Omsk.
Navalny fell suddenly ill on a flight home to Moscow and the pilot diverted to Omsk, where he received lifesaving emergency treatment from paramedics.
Had the plane flown on to Moscow, Navalny would almost certainly have died, according to experts in toxicology consulted by CNN.
"The flight is about three hours, this is a long flight," Kudryavtsev said. "If you don't land the plane the effect would've been different and the result would've been different. So I think the plane played the decisive part."
"[We] didn't expect all this would happen. I'm sure that everything went wrong," Kudryavtsev added -- suggesting that the FSB's intent was to kill Navalny, as many toxicologists familiar with Novichok have said.
When pushed as to whether the wrong dose of poison could have been administered, Kudryavtsev countered: "As I understand it, we added bit extra."
The cleanup job
Kudryavtsev's background suggests he is a specialist in chemical and biological weapons. He graduated from the Moscow branch of the Russian Academy of Chemical Defense. Bellingcat has established he later worked at the 42nd center of the Ministry of Defense -- its biological security research center.
The Bellingcat-CNN investigation, that also involved German magazine Der Spiegel and Russian online publication The Insider, had already established through flight manifests that Kudryavtsev had flown to Omsk on August 25, five days after the poisoning.
Putin responds to CNN investigation, does not deny Navalny was tracked
Putin responds to CNN investigation, does not deny Navalny was tracked 03:36
"When we arrived, they gave them to us, the local Omsk guys brought [them] with the police," Kudryavtsev said on the call. He added they had applied solutions, so that there were no traces left on the clothes.
"So there won't be any surprises with the clothes?" asked Navalny.
"That's why we went there several times," Kudryavtsev replied.
Navalny and his team have several times demanded that his clothes be returned to him, but Russian authorities have refused.
Later, Kudryavtsev says, "I was told to work precisely with the underpants, on the inside."
Navalny asked: "Who said that? Makshakov?"
"Yeah," answered Kudryavtsev.