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Bellingcat

21 Dec, 12 tweets, 5 min read

@navalny

In August, @navalny was poisoned by an FSB team with Novichok. Last week, @navalny spoke to one of the FSB officers involved in the operation... for 48 minutes.
Full transcript (in Russian + English), analysis, and everything else you need to know: bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

Navalny called Konstantin Kudryavtsev, a military chemist with the FSB who flew to Omsk after the poisoning attempt. He introduced himself as the fictional "Maxim Ustinov", an "aide to [Russian security council head] Patrushev", taking a report on the failed operation.

In order to get Kudryavtsev to pick up the phone, Navalny used a spoofing app that made his number appear to be that of an FSB landline that was frequently called throughout the operation by many members of the team.

The most insane part -- Kudryavtsev didn't recognize Navalny's voice (other people Navalny called did recognize him)

Navalny, speaking as "Maxim Ustinov", asked Kudryavtsev about various aspects of the operation throughout the call -- how do you asses your colleagues' competency? why did the operation fail? how would you do the operation differently? how was the poison applied?

("Very well" / "The paramedics and pilot" / "It's not for me to say" / "On the crotch of the underwear")

Kudryavtsev was kind enough to volunteer information about his team, and even corrected Navalny on a slip-up when he asked about how Oleg Tayakin (who was in Moscow) -- instead of Ivan Osipov (who was in Tomsk) -- provided leadership for the operation.

This call gave us some new details we had no idea about. Kudryavtsev named a local FSB chief named Mikhail. We figured out this is Mikhail Evdokimov, and is likely the man standing on the right in this photo at the Omsk hospital where Navalny was sent.

The call is required listening. We put the entire transcript in the original Russian and translated into English in our article, along with embedded videos of the call with both English and Russian subtitles.
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

Full call, with English subtitles:

Full call, with Russian subtitles:

@navalny

Video footage of the call (with reactions from @navalny, @christogrozev, and @pevchikh) on Navalny's channel, with timestamp at the beginning of the call:

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