An elite Russian chemical weapons squad that trailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny for years before purportedly poisoning him with Novichok was involved with a minimum of three other killings, according to a joint investigation released Wednesday.
In December, CNN, the Bellingcat investigatory outlet, Russia’s The Insider and also Germany’s Der Spiegel made use of phone documents, flight logs and also other files to track the movements of a Federal Security Service (FSB) device focusing on contaminants as well as nerve agents. That examination claimed the unit’s participants were deployed along with Navalny’s Siberian journey at around the moment of his Aug. 20 poisoning.
Utilizing this traveling data, Bellingcat, The Insider as well as Der Spiegel claimed they have connected the FSB device to the murders of journalist-activist Timur Kuashev, activist Ruslan Magomedragimov and political leader Nikita Isayev.
” Travel coincidences make it difficult to question the participation of this team of poisoners,” The Insider created.
Timur Kuashev was discovered dead at age 26 in a woodland near his residence in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria after going missing out on in late July 2014. Prior to his death, he had actually whined regarding hazards from law enforcement officials following his crucial reports and also opposition tasks. The examination into his death is still continuous, with friends and associates disputing postmortem examination searchings for that he passed away of cardiac arrest. The medical examiner had actually found a syringe mark under his armpit.
FSB chemical-weapons agent Konstantin Kudryavtsev, who was named in the Navalny examination as well as later on presumably admitted to the poisoning in a trick call with Navalny himself, shown up in Kuashev’s house city of Nalchik on July 13, 2014, The Insider reported. In the coming days, fellow FSB unit participants Ivan Osipov, Denis Machikin and also Roman Matyushin flew to close-by airport terminals. All 3 representatives went back to Moscow on July 31 and also Aug. 1, the day Kushaev’s body was discovered, The Insider reported.
Ruslan Magomedragimov, a lobbyist with the “Unity” civic motion, was discovered dead at age 45 near Makhachkala in the republic of Dagestan on March 24, 2015. His official reason of fatality was ruled to be suffocation, yet his loved ones claimed there were 2 points on his neck comparable to shot marks from a syringe, The Insider said.
According to The Insider, Osipov flew to Makhachkala twice in January 2015, while Kudryavtsev flew there from March 11-16. Osipov flew to Vladikavkaz, a four-hour drive from Makhachkala, on March 20 and returned to Moscow on March 26. The Insider kept in mind, nonetheless, that “the probability of coincidence can not be totally excluded,” as Osipov traveled to Makhachkala a number of various other times.
Nikita Isayev, the former head of the ” New Russia” activity, died at age 41 on a train from Tambov to Moscow on Nov. 16, 2019. Quickly prior to his fatality, he had been assigned as an adviser for regional advancement by the head of the A Just Russia celebration, Sergei Mironov. During his profession, he promoted for environmental problems in Russia’s regions. His official reason of death was a cardiac arrest, yet his body was cremated before the autopsy results were released.
The joint examination mentioned its documents as stating that FSB agents had trailed Isayev since December 2018, including two participants of the group that tailed Navalny– Osipov and Alexei Alexandrov. Nonetheless, it kept in mind that Isayev “was absolutely devoted to the Kremlin as a politician” which there was no probable motive for him to be killed by the FSB. The examination pointed to Isayev’s regular journeys abroad as evidence that he might have helped Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service which he might have done something watched by the special solutions as treason, but worried that it had no proof of this concept.