{"id":100157,"date":"2020-12-21T12:58:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T06:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/navalnys-underpants-smeared-with-poison-would-be-assassin-reveals\/"},"modified":"2020-12-22T00:51:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T18:51:36","slug":"navalnys-underpants-smeared-with-poison-would-be-assassin-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/navalnys-underpants-smeared-with-poison-would-be-assassin-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"Navalny’s Underpants Smeared With Poison, Would-Be Assassin Reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"
A Russian agent involved in the cleanup of the near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning of Alexei Navalny in August has revealed in an inadvertent confession how the Russian activist\u2019s underpants were smeared with the toxin Novichok by an intelligence unit from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). \u201cSo, I think the plane played the decisive part.\u201d
His disclosure was made in a remarkable and lengthy phone conversation with Navalny himself, who posed as a high-ranking Russian official wanting to know why the assassination bid failed. Investigative news outlet Bellingcat collaborated with Navalny and listened in on the conversation.
Konstantin Kudryavtsev, a member of a suspected FSB intelligence squad, revealed in the 49-minute conversation how the assassination plan was organized and overseen. He disclosed details of the subsequent cleanup operation to erase any evidence of the murder attempt, which took place on August 20 in Siberia\u2019s Tomsk.
Navalny almost died from the poisoning and was transferred to a German hospital after an international outcry. Tests in Berlin indicated the presence of the nerve agent Novichok in his body.
Last week, Bellingcat, along with a handful of media partners, unmasked the members of the unit behind the assassination operation. They mined open-source data and obtained cellphone logs on the black market for their expose.
On Friday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin neither confirmed nor denied FSB involvement in the assassination attempt but joked that if they had wanted him dead, \u201cthey would've probably finished it.\u201d
First contact<\/strong>
The phone call involving the Russian agent took place on December 14, several hours before Bellingcat and its partners published their initial finding into Navalny\u2019s poisoning. They reported that an elite Russian intelligence chemical weapons unit trailed Navalny for the past three years, right up until his near-fatal poisoning in August.
According to Bellingcat, the FSB squad started shadowing the Russian activist, who has long been a thorn in the side of the Kremlin, in 2017, shortly after he announced he would run against Putin in the presidential elections.
Six to 10 agents of the unit specializing in toxins and nerve agents followed Navalny on more than 30 trips, according to phone records, flight manifests and other documents unearthed by Bellingcat in a joint investigation with CNN, Russia\u2019s The Insider news site and Germany\u2019s Der Spiegel<\/em> magazine.
In his conversations with Navalny, Kudryavtsev added significant new details to the operation, explaining how he was sent to clean up things. Navalny, who is recuperating at a secret location in Germany, posed as an important aide to a senior official on Russia's National Security Council, saying he was tasked with carrying out an analysis of the poisoning and to identify what went wrong.
The phone number he used was disguised as coming from FSB headquarters, according to Bellingcat, which helped arrange the masking of the real number from Kudryavtsev. A Bellingcat researcher sat in on the call and recorded it.
At first, Kudryavtsev appeared reluctant to discuss the details over the phone. But Navalny, using the typical brusque manner of Russian officials, told him it was urgent and that he had to complete a report to be \u201cdiscussed at the Security Council on the highest level.\u201d
\u201cWhat item of clothing was the emphasis on?\u201d Navalny asked.
\u201cUnderpants,\u201d Kudryavtsev replied.
Navalny then asked exactly where the Novichok was applied.
\u201cThe insides, the crotch,\u201d Kudryavtsev responded.
Novichok can be absorbed through the skin.
Navalny fell ill on a flight home from Tomsk to Moscow. The pilot diverted the plane to Omsk so Navalny could receive lifesaving treatment from medics. Kudryavtsev noted in the call that if the flight had not been diverted, \u201cthe result would've been different.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201c[We] didn't expect all this would happen. I'm sure that everything went wrong.\u201d
Kudryavtsev was also asked what dosage was used and whether a sufficient quantity had been administered. Kudryavtsev said that had not been the problem.
\u201cAs I understand it, we added [a] bit extra,\u201d he said.
Kudryavtsev is a specialist in chemical and biological weapons, having graduated from the Russian Academy of Chemical Defense. Bellingcat has established that he later worked at the 42nd center of the Ministry of Defense \u2014 a biological security research center.
Western governments say Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, the same substance British officials identified as used in an attack in Britain in 2018 in a bid to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. The European Union has sanctioned FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov and senior Kremlin officials over the Navalny assassination bid.
Subsequent tests by French and Swedish laboratories of Navalny\u2019s fluids confirmed the German result. In an interview with a German magazine in October, Navalny accused the Kremlin of being behind his poisoning.
\u201cI don\u2019t have any other versions of how the crime was committed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n