Thank goodness not all media is fake news and there are still outlets where substance matters more than agenda. In these turbulent times it feels like a breath of fresh air. A combined international effort of journalists, investigators and fact checkers from Bellingcat, Insider, Der Spiegel, El Pais, CNN and Navalny’s own FBK have pieced together a step-by-step walkthrough of multiple assassination attempts performed and orchestrated by the Russian Secret Police (FSB) using the internationally prohibited nerve agent “Novichok”. Navalny claims that all theories and facts he presents can be checked and verified, but critical thinking should still be applied.
Alexey Navalny is the most prominent Russian dissident, who tried challenging Vladimir Putin for the seat of the president of Russian Federation in Y2016 and claims that ever since has been on the radar of FSB. Russia has a long bloody history of dealing with the critics of Kremlin. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, oligarch and ex-CEO of energy powerhouse Yukos, was jailed for 10 years in Y2003 when he had accumulated too much wealth and started challenging for power. Boris Nemtsov was less fortunate. The charismatic and outspoken liberal was gunned down next to the Kremlin in Y2015. Most recent and infamous was the failed assassination attempt on former Russian Intelligence agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK. The case garnered global attention and a full investigative report was put together and linked to two Russian FSB agents. The list is long and includes politicians, journalists and KGB defectors and one might see a pattern emerge – come too close to the sun and you might get burned.
The most recent investigation pieces together a four-year effort by FSB to continuously monitor and track movements of Navalny and his team using no less than two agents with medical and chemistry background at all times. The agents tried to avoid detection by using fake names and differing travel schedules. Journalists claim that on the 20th of August Navalny was poisoned with “Novichok” after filming a number of videos exposing corruption in central Russia and suffered a seizure on board a flight to Moscow. After an emergency landing, he was administered into a local hospital for treatment. Mounting international pressure from EU leaders Macron and Merkel resulted in an effort to transfer Navalny to Charite hospital in Berlin where he has since made a full recovery. Three separate independent laboratories have confirmed traces of “Novichok” in bloodwork taken in Berlin.
Kremlin denies all allegations and have offered a wide variety of alternative theories.
Full transcript and video (with English subtitles) can be found on the link below. Stay informed and make up your own mind.
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