Thread by @bellingcat

One year ago today, we published our double Emmy award-winning investigation which unmasked the FSB poisoning team implicated in the attempted poisoning of Alexey @navalny using the nerve agent Novichok. bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

Thus began a turbulent year for Navalny, independent media and human rights organisations in Russia as the government began to crack down on anyone or any organisation perceived to be a threat to their power.

Working with the Latvia-based Russian language media outlet The Insider (@the_ins_ru) and @clarissaward and her team at CNN we revealed how a team of FSB officers had followed Navalny over multiple years prior to his poisoning. theins.ru/politika/237705

Several of them had a familiarity with chemical weapons research and communicated with experts in organophosphate toxins in the weeks prior to Navalny’s August 2020 trip to Siberia. bellingcat.com/uncategorized/…

Our investigation uncovered many details about the FSB poison team, allowing CNN’s @clarissaward to visit one of the team at his home in Russia, although he wasn’t very welcoming
edition.cnn.com/2020/12/14/eur…

The investigation used travel records, phone records and other material from Russia’s “probiv” data black market, along with leaked Russian government databases, to track the team who followed Navalny on dozens of journeys.
bellingcat.com/resources/2020…

As this 2019 @bbcrussian article shows, “Probiv”, which loosely translates as “lookup”, is a widely established practice in Russia of dubious legality which flourishes partly due to leaks of personal data and corrupt state officials. bbc.com/russian/featur…

President Putin was asked about the investigation at his yearly press conference, and described the investigation as “legalisation of the materials of American intelligence agencies” and said the FSB would have finished the job if they did poison Navalny. theguardian.com/world/2020/dec…

A few days later, we revealed the second part of our investigation, where @Navalny himself called a member of the poisoning team and tricked him into giving a full report on the operation.
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

Following Navalny’s recovery from the assassination attempt, he announced he would leave Germany and return to Russia, where was arrested immediately on arrival.
news.sky.com/story/alexei-n…

The following day Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) released a new video, detailing a secret, opulent palace allegedly being built for President Putin, which ended up as FBK’s most watched video with over 120 million views

As our researchers followed the movements of the FSB team, more and more patterns started to emerge, leading to further odd coincidences in travel itineraries.

So Bellingcat continued its work with The Insider, identifying 3 more individuals who were found dead in mysterious circumstances while they were being followed by the same FSB team that followed Navalny
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

A few days later, pro-Navalny protests took place in Russia, with over 100 journalists covering the protests reported detained. It foreshadowed a year of oppression for independent voices inside Russia.
cpj.org/2021/02/russia…

The protests were followed by the jailing of @Navalny for nearly three years, for allegedly violating parole conditions of an earlier case while he was in Germany recovering from the assassination attempt. nbcnews.com/news/world/ale…

Bellingcat continued to investigate more of the FSB Team’s activities, linking their travels to two poisoning attempts on Vladimir Kara-Murza. The close ally of murdered activist Boris Nemtsov fell into a coma on both occasions bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

While Putin dismissed our investigation as "legalisation of the materials of American intelligence agencies”, his security services began to crack down on the real source of our information, the Russian probiv market:
themoscowtimes.com/2021/03/09/kre…

But the crackdown on the probiv market didn’t prevent us from identifying another individual followed by the FSB poisoning team just before they fell mysteriously ill, this time Russian poet Dmitry Bykov: bellingcat.com/news/2021/06/0…

As the Russian elections approached, the authorities started to rely on their foreign agent laws, explained in this article, to crack down on independent and critical media and NGOs meduza.io/en/feature/202…

Our partner, The Insider, was declared a foreign agent. The home of its editor Roman @Dobrokhotov was raided by police, supposedly for a tweet he made about a Dutch blogger: rferl.org/a/roman-dobrok…

More media outlets and NGOs were targeted by the foreign agent law, forcing them to put disclaimers on all their publications, including social media posts, about their status npr.org/2021/07/31/102…

Many, including The Insider's Roman @Dobrokhotov, were driven to leave the country, as the crackdown became increasingly oppressive, both before and after the Russian elections. theguardian.com/world/2021/sep…

In October, Russia extended the foreign agent law to those investigating the Russian military and security services, subjects of Bellingcat's own investigations.
theguardian.com/world/2021/oct…

Somewhat surprisingly, but also not, a week later Bellingcat was labelled a foreign agent, despite having no staff, office, or presence, legal or otherwise, in Russia.
theguardian.com/world/2021/oct…

In November, a criminal case against one data dealer even named several of the FSB officers among those whose data had been illegally accessed — seemingly confirming that the data we used were genuine.
theins.ru/politika/246166

Despite Russian government efforts to the contrary, there are still efforts to hold the Kremlin accountable for these actions. The UK and US imposed sanctions on individuals identified by Bellingcat in relation to the Navalny poisoning.
reuters.com/world/uk/uk-sa…

In January, @JMaireofficiel will present a report to the Parliament of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the @Navalny assassination attempt drawing on the work of Bellingcat and partners:

https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1469045942750003209

Team @Navalny has now also started to offer rewards for evidence related to the attempted assassination:
themoscowtimes.com/2021/12/09/tea…

There could well be more developments in the next 12 months, starting as soon as tomorrow, when it’s expected the verdict in the Berlin Bicycle Assassination case will be announced. Bellingcat’s work played a key role in the case.
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

Next year, we’re also expecting the public inquiry into death of Dawn Sturgess, who died after being exposed to Novichok in Amesbury following the Skripal assassination attempt. gov.uk/government/new…

None of these investigations would have been possible without your generous support. The data we have found could yield other worrying revelations. You can donate to Bellingcat at the link below: bellingcat.com/donate