Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny — who fell gravely ill on a domestic flight in Russia — was likely poisoned by a tainted Negroni in an assassination attempt by the country’s spy agency, according to a bombshell investigation.
The report, published Monday by investigative website Bellingcat, claims the prominent opposition leader had been trailed and spied on for four years by Russian intelligence agents before the fateful flight in August.
Before boarding the plane to Moscow, Navalny had reportedly ordered a Bloody Mary at the Xander Hotel in the Siberian city of Tomsk.
But the bartender told him that they didn’t have the necessary ingredients and suggested he order a Negroni instead, according to the report.
Navalny obliged but told Bellingcat that he couldn’t take more than one sip because “the cocktail tasted like the most disgusting thing I’ve had in my life.”
He then became so sick that the flight had to make an emergency landing — and he was put in a medically induced coma for more than two weeks.
The Berlin hospital where he was later transferred believes Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him.
Now, the Bellingcat report reveals that Russia’s FSB security service agents who “have specialized training in chemical weapons, chemistry and medicine” had followed the opposition leader more than 37 times over the last four years.
“These operatives were in the vicinity of the opposition activist in the days and hours of the time-range during which he was poisoned with a military-grade chemical weapon,” Bellingcat said.
“Given this implausible series of coincidences, the burden of proof for an innocent explanation appears to rest purely with the Russian state.”
Navalny said he agreed with the findings of the report — and he now considered the case solved.
“I know who wanted to kill me. I know where they live. I know where they work. I know their real names. I know their fake names. I have their photos,” Navalny said in a video, in which he can be seen holding photos of the men named in the probe.
Navalny also said he now believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the hit against him in retaliation for announcing that Navalny would run for president of Russia in 2018.
The Kremlin has denied Putin had anything to do with Navalny’s poisoning.
With Post wires
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