A top employee of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been arrested after stepping inside an alleged security agent who accidentally revealed details of Navalny’s alleged poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
MOSCOW – A top employee of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained on Friday after calling an alleged security officer who accidentally revealed details of Navalny’s alleged poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Lyubov Sobol, a key figure in Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, was held for 48 hours after a day of questioning on charges of violent transgression. The move followed Sobol’s attempt on Monday to enter the Moscow apartment of the alleged agent, who had previously cheated Navalny by describing details of the alleged poisoning.
Sobol has denied the charges and insisted that she was not breaking any laws by ringing the bell at the apartment. While Sobol was being questioned, the state’s commission of inquiry issued a statement accusing her of violating the charges her colleagues have dismissed.
Earlier this week, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he had made with a man he identified as Konstantin Kudryavtsev and described as an alleged member of a group of officers from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who supposedly poisoned him with the Novichok Soviet-era agent in August and then tried to cover it up.
Navalny, who is recovering in Germany, said he called the man hours before the Bellingcat research group released a report claiming that FSB agents with specialized training in chemical weapons followed him for years and were close by when he was poisoned.
In the call, Navalny introduced himself as a security officer and enticed his interlocutor to share details of the alleged poisoning operation and acknowledge that he was involved in “processing” Navalny’s underwear so that “there would be no traces” of poison.
Navalny fell ill during the August 20 flight in Russia and was flown to Berlin two days later while still in a coma for treatment. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, showed he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.
Russian authorities have vigorously denied any involvement in the poisoning and the FSB has dismissed the recording released by Navalny as fake.