Poison attack on Alexei Navalny

The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was the victim of a poison attack on August 20, 2020. As a result, there were EU sanctions against Russia, counter- sanctions and calls for the termination of the Nord Stream 2 project .

The attack in context

prehistory

In the week after the incident, it became known that Navalny had been in Siberia to hold talks with opposition representatives on the occasion of the upcoming Russian regional elections . According to Spiegel, an article in the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolez is based on information from a detailed report by the Russian secret service FSB .

According to the report, police found that Navalny had originally come to Novosibirsk for a further investigation with a quadcopter and to meet with supporters before the elections . According to Moskovsky Komsomolets sources in the security forces, all activities were under the control of civilian law enforcement officers.

According to Moskovsky Komsomolets , Navalny arrived in Tomsk at around 6 p.m. on August 18 . The rooms in the Hotel Xander had been booked by supporters of Nawalnys on site, seven rooms for four people. Navalny spent the night in a different room from the one booked for him. Navalny moved around the city inconspicuously, avoided public cameras and did not use his credit card. Walks and meetings with supporters were observed. During their controls, the police officers found no contacts that could be linked to the poisoning. Navalny's group arrived later.

Claims by Russian media that Navalny partied and drank in Kaftanchikovo have been reversed by the police. Navalny only went swimming in the Tom River , two and a half hours by car from Tomsk, at 9 p.m. on the eve of his departure, as on other occasions . After Bellingcat, his room was unattended until his return, Navalny returned at 11 p.m., had a cocktail with the team in the bar at 11:15 p.m. and went to his room at 11:30 p.m.

The film material from Novosibirsk was processed in a house rented by a trailer. According to the confiscated tax documents in the shops where Navalny and his followers had bought, only juices and water were bought. Purchases of household chemicals or pharmacy purchases were not detected, said Moskovsky Komsomolets.

The close monitoring of Navalny was one of the reasons for the assumption that the secret service was involved in the poisoning of Navalny and for the justification of the sanctions:

Because of his prominent role in the political opposition, Alexej Navalny is the target of systematic harassment and repression by state actors and actors of the judiciary in the Russian Federation. Alexei Navalny's activities were closely monitored by the Russian Federation's domestic intelligence service during his trip to Siberia in August 2020. (…) Under these circumstances and in view of the fact that Alexei Navalny was under surveillance at the time of his poisoning, it can be assumed that the poisoning was only possible with the participation of the Federal Service for Safety.

In the days and weeks before, Navalny had commented approvingly on the protests in Belarus and expressed that he assumed that a similar revolution would soon take place in Russia, which would sweep Vladimir Putin and the secret service away. The video messages in which he expressed solidarity with the protests in Belarus and with the protests in Khabarovsk were viewed several million times.

On December 14, 2020, Bellingcat and The Insider with Der Spiegel and CNN documented systematic monitoring of Nawalny's since January 16, 2017 at the latest, one month after he announced his intention to run for the presidency. FSB employees, including specialists in toxic substances, shadowed Navalny on his travels. "In total, the FSB troops made 37 trips to the same destinations that Navalny traveled by plane or train between 2017 and 2020," said Bellingcat. Three employees followed Navalny to Novosibirsk and Tomsk, the doctors Alexei Alexandrow and Ivan Osipov as well as Vladimir Panjaew. Five other employees have accompanied their work, some have alsotraveledto Omsk . Communication peaks between the members were noted for the time shortly before the poisoning and for the time Navalny drove from the hotel to the airport.

Previous attacks on Navalny and his wife

Navalny had previously been the target of attacks, for example on April 27, 2017 by a Seljonka attack in which his eye was sprayed so that he suffered an 80 percent loss of vision in his right eye. According to his suspicion, the perpetrator was Alexander Petrunko with connections to a member of the Duma . Navalny blamed the government for the attack.

Navalny was arrested and detained in July 2019, and on July 28 he was hospitalized with allegedly allergic reactions to his eyes and skin. Anastassija Wassiljewa, one of Navalny's doctors, questioned the diagnosis and advocated the possibility of damaging effects of chemical substances.

According to the Bellingcat research group, the domestic secret service tried on several occasions to carry out attacks on Navalny or his wife Yulia Navalnaya. On July 6, 2020, Julija Navalnaya suddenly felt weak and uncomfortable during their stay in Kaliningrad . The stay in Kaliningrad was monitored by FSB members.

Course of the attack

On Thursday morning, August 20, 2020, at 6 a.m., the Navalny team waited in the lobby for Navalny to come down and drive to the airport with his assistant Kira Jarmysch. A taxi had already been ordered. Navalny appeared at 6:05 a.m.

At Tomsk Airport Navalny and Jarmysch boarded an S7 Airlines plane to Moscow , flight S7 2614. According to research by the BBC , the flight started a little later than usual, at 8.01 Tomsk time (4.01 Moscow time ). Navalny left his team from the Foundation against Corruption (FBK) in Tomsk Hotel Xander so that they could continue the local investigation there.

Within the first half an hour after the start, he suddenly felt uncomfortable, was in the toilet from 8:30 am to 8:50 am, screaming in pain a little later and initially passed out. At 8.50 Tomsk time (4.50 am Moscow time), the flight attendants and a nurse determined the illness and the urgent need for clinical treatment. The pilot then decided to make an emergency landing at Omsk Airport . The plane landed at 9:01 a.m. and the airport medical team came on board at 9:03 a.m. The medical team determined that Navalny needed intensive medical treatment. For this purpose an ambulance was requested, which arrived ten minutes later and took Navalny to City Clinic No. 1 (Russian: Городская клиническая больница скорой медицинской помощи №1) convicted. There he was treated with atropine .

On Thursday evening, August 20, the hospital announced that Navalny was in a (not artificial) coma and was being ventilated . His clothes are said to have been removed when he was introduced and not returned later.

According to research by the Washington Post and the BBC News , Maria Pewtschich, the "head of the Navalny team", is said to have learned of the emergency landing and Navalny's unconsciousness on August 20 at around 10 am. The lawyer Wladlen Los had breakfast with two other members of the team. Investigator Georgi Alburov checked his flight app and found that Navalny's flight to Omsk had been diverted. He sent a text message to the press officer Kira Jarmysch, who had flown with him. A few minutes later she reported that Navalny was unconscious and that he had been poisoned. A short time later, a passenger posted a video on Twitter in which Navalny could be heard screaming and moaning.

Pevchich then rushed with part of the team, Georgi Alburov and Wladlen Los, to room 239 of the hotel from which Navalny had checked out that morning. Los waited at the door until the hotel reception allowed entry to the room after an initial refusal. The team entered the room at 11:45 a.m.

In an interview, Pevchich said that she had been with Navalny for the past few days and that she thought he was healthy. Therefore, the team was certain that something bad must have happened. Since they were in Russia, poisoning seemed likely to them. To their horror, according to Pevchich, poisoning is "almost the norm here". Accompanied by a hotel employee, they went into the room and filmed how they collected everything with rubber gloves that Navalny could have touched, even though the hotel employee had asked the police for permission. Pevchich drove with Alburov with the objects in the car to Novosibirsk and flew from there to Omsk. There she later boarded the plane to Berlin with Navalny, the items “strategically packed” in hand luggage, including the Swatoj Istochnik brand water bottles. One of these bottles is said to have had microscopic traces of Novitschok later .

Fellow travelers stated that Navalny had not had anything but tea at the airport since that morning. According to the group's spokeswoman, Kira Jarmysch, his team assumed on August 20 that the tea had been mixed with a poison . Several observers suspected the Russian government was involved and recalled similar cases, such as the murder of Alexander Litvinenko . Other observers, including those from Western intelligence agencies, said it was too early to name those responsible and warned against the quick assignment of blame.

On September 17, Navalny's team announced that they had seized Navalny's bottles and other items at the Tomsk hotel after the collapse. The team also posted footage of the hotel room and two Swatoj Istochnik branded water bottles with a comment on Instagram . A German laboratory is said to have detected the Novitschok traces on one of these water bottles, other laboratories have confirmed this. The team concluded that the poisoning had already taken place in the hotel room. Government spokesman Dmitri Peskow declared this to be implausible, as in this case a state of emergency would have been declared. The evidence is now outside the country, so clarification is not possible. According to toxicologists , such a bottle “cannot just be brought anywhere”. Vladimir Tschischow asked how the bottles could get through the airport control. Jaka Bizilj , who had organized Nawalny's rescue flight to Berlin, explained this by saying that the water bottles were transported to Germany by plane at the request of Nawalny's chief of staff.

According to Nawalny's team, the poison on the bottle is a secondary trace. The actual cause of the poisoning is still unknown.

After a TASS - Report of October 8, 2020 There are no bottles were found in the airport control.

In a telephone conversation with Navalny, FSB officer Konstantin Kudryavzew said there was no trace of the bottle.

In an interview with Spiegel on September 30, 2020, Navalny stated that he assumed he had touched the poison on a surface and absorbed it through the skin. “There are many objects that you touch in a hotel before you leave it - the shower, the toilet, the clothes rack, the handle of your bag - you are sure to touch something.” The clothing that could provide information here is aware been eliminated. It was taken from him when he was admitted to the hospital in Omsk.

On October 14, 2020, the New York Times reported that Navalny may have ingested poison twice, through the water bottle and tea. A senior secret service official also reported anonymously that the poison was probably dissolved in powder form in liquid, most likely tea.

On December 21, 2020, Der Spiegel reported that in a telephone conversation on December 14, FSB agent Konstantin Kudrjawzew had informed the undercover Navalny that the assassins had applied the neurotoxin Novichok "on the inside of Navalny's underpants".

Bellingcat reported that, according to a 1992 paper by chemical weapons experts Frederick R. Sidell and Jonathan Borak Novitschok, cholinesterase activity can be inhibited by up to 75 to 80 percent. This means that a non-lethal dose of the agent can only lead to temporary or partial motor or respiratory disorders.

Diagnosis and treatment in Omsk

The paramedics who took Navalny off the plane had been informed by the pilot based on the assumptions of Navalny's companions that a passenger with likely poisoning was on board. The paramedics based their immediate measures on this statement. During the first 12 minutes after landing, they would have ruled out a diabetic coma and a stroke, because their blood analysis using glucometry determined a normal blood sugar level of 3–5 mmol / liter. There was no problem with carbohydrate metabolism. Navalny found himself in a stupor , he could not explain anything, his consciousness was confused. The paramedics suspected poisoning, but they did not administer atropine because they did not suspect a corresponding type of poisoning. Navalny said on October 6th that the paramedics had already realized that it was poisoning.

This representation was later contradicted by the chief toxicologist of the Omsk clinic, Alexander Sabayev. The paramedics would have measured a value of 13 mmol / liter and metabolic disorders could only be diagnosed by biochemical analysis in the clinic.

Navalny was admitted to the hospital Clinic No. 1 (Russian: Городская клиническая больница скорой медицинской помощи №1), initially to the toxicological department, as poisoning was suspected. Based on reports from the paramedics and the Navalny team, the toxicologist Sabayev had a small dose of atropine administered shortly after arriving at the hospital because of the condition of his lungs. Shortly after admission to the hospital, the attending physicians said that it could be poisoning with “ antipsychotics or neuroleptics ”. Treatment with atropine is said to have saved Navalny's life, but according to Der Standard it also ruled out that it was Novichok, as it was ineffective here. According to an article by Spectrum of Science on Poisoning Navalnys, treatment for Novichok poisoning requires high doses of atropine shortly after poisoning and ventilation.

According to a statement by Ivan Zhdanov, the head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the doctors had also been informed that a dangerous substance had been found that could be dangerous not only for Navalny himself but also for the surrounding area, which is why protective suits were advised has been. The deputy chief physician Anatoly Kalinitschenko contradicted this representation, insofar as no evidence of traces of poison was possible in the blood or urine.

According to Meduza , the initial diagnosis of poisoning persisted until the end of the first day, when two laboratories in Moscow and Tomsk told them that no chemical or toxicological substances could be identified. Therefore, one moved away from the explanation by poisoning.

According to the Guardian, the diagnosis was denied after the police arrived. The chief physician of the Russian clinic, Alexander Murachowski, officially diagnosed a metabolic disorder due to low blood sugar on August 21 . Navalny's personal doctor Anastassija Wassiljewa replied that low blood sugar and a metabolic disorder are not a diagnosis , but a description of the condition. Nawalny's blood sugar was also in the normal range. According to Reuters, the doctors in Omsk found a metabolic disorder and a four-fold increase in blood sugar levels.

During Nawalny's treatment, the Omsk doctors initially questioned his stability and thus his ability to be transported. Alexander Murachowski had given the wrong impression that the decision had been made together with the German doctors. It takes two more days to complete the investigation. In the meantime, Ms. Nawalnys' contact with the Germans was prevented by physical violence. In the evening the doctors gave their consent to the transport. Medics said Friday he was in an induced coma and his brain was in a stable state.

On Friday evening, August 21, the medical profession in Omsk also determined that poisoning of Navalny could "definitely" be ruled out. This was finally expressed by the toxicologist Sabayev, who initially assumed poisoning but changed his mind after the laboratory results.

Relocation to Berlin

The transfer to the Berlin Charité became possible because Nawalny's wife Julija turned directly to President Putin on Friday, August 21. At the Valdai Club conference on October 22, 2020, he confirmed that Russian authorities could have prevented Navalny from leaving the country, who was in a coma, for legal reasons. He personally instructed the Russian authorities to allow the flight. His intervention took place immediately after Julija Navalnaya asked in a letter.

The FAI rent-a-jet was commissioned for the transfer to the Charité in Germany, organized by Jaka Bizilj , founder of the non-governmental organization Cinema for Peace Foundation . Boris Simin, son of the UK-based founder of Veon , apparently paid for the relocation .

The CL60 ambulance jet took off on Friday morning, August 21, at 3.13 a.m. CEST (7.13 a.m. Omsk time) in Nuremberg for its 4000 km flight, with a German team of doctors on board.

However, by order of the Russian authorities, the flight to Berlin did not take place on the same day, Friday, August 21, as planned, but only in the early morning of the following day, Saturday, August 22. The approval for the flight was communicated to the German doctors present in Omsk on Friday, August 21 at 11 p.m. Omsk time. The plane took off at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, Omsk time. The reason for the delay was that, under German law, the pilots had to observe rest periods. Nawalny's family, friends and colleagues suspected a deliberate delay to make it more difficult to investigate the cause.

Navalny landed on Saturday at 8.46 a.m. CEST, 12.46 p.m. Omsk time, in Berlin-Tegel and was brought to the Charité in an intensive care transport from the Bundeswehr medical service. Due to the risk of further murder attempts, he was placed under personal protection by the Federal Criminal Police Office .

Treatment in Germany

Blood tests and examinations by Navalny, as well as the evaluations, were carried out from the beginning with the involvement of French and Swedish experts in order to be able to counter criticism from the Russian side. On August 24th, the Charité announced that the first clinical findings indicated that Nawalnys was intoxicated by a substance that inhibits cholinesterase and thus attacks the nervous system. The specific substance is still unknown. The effect of the poison was "proven several times and in independent laboratories". Accordingly, Navalny is being treated with the antidote atropine. Russian doctors had ruled out cholinesterase inhibitors.

Because of the suspicion of poisoning Nawalny with a chemical warfare agent, the Charité asked the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology of the German Armed Forces in Munich for support. Spiegel and the research platform Bellingcat also identified inquiries to the Research Center for Biological and Chemical Weapons in Porton Down , which had been involved in investigations after the attack against Sergei Skripal . Charité experts asked Bulgaria about the case of the arms dealer Emilian Gebrew, who was poisoned with an organophosphate and for which the Russian military intelligence service GRU was allegedly responsible.

According to a presentation on August 28 by Bruno Kahl , President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the poison is even “harder” than previous forms. "The more complex, newer and rarer the chemical composition of the poison", the more likely it is "that you can only get hold of it with the help of the Russian state apparatus," said the German government. Because of the verifiable close surveillance by the FSB, German security authorities assume that only a Russian secret service could have poisoned Navalny. The perpetrators' calculation was that Navalny should die on board the plane. Only the courageous intervention of the pilot, who made a spontaneous emergency landing in Omsk, and the subsequent treatment of Navalny with an antidote in the local hospital would have saved his life.

On August 28, the Charité announced that the symptoms of the cholinergic crisis triggered by the cholinesterase inhibition in Navalny were decreasing.

On September 7th, 2020 Navalny was brought out of artificial deep sleep.

On September 14, the federal government announced that special laboratories in France and Sweden had independently confirmed the poisoning with a warfare agent from the Novichok group. Navalny himself had recovered further that day and no longer needed artificial respiration. According to the Charité, he has been able to get out of bed for some time.

On September 21, Navalny, the FBK and over 10 employees filed a lawsuit against Vladimir Putin. You personally blame Putin for the “absolute and demonstrative lawlessness” in the “FBK case” and declare that you are ready to defend this position in court.

On September 22nd, Navalny was able to leave the hospital. He himself announced that he was still suffering from paralysis in his left hand and was planning rehab . According to the Charité, long-term effects of the poisoning cannot yet be ruled out, but a complete cure is possible due to the good progression.

On September 28, it became known that Chancellor Angela Merkel had visited Navalny in the week before the discharge. According to the media, it was a private appointment.

In mid-October 2020, Navalny stated that the costs in the Charité amounted to 49,900 euros and had been paid by friends. He himself could not bear the costs, since his private accounts, those of his family and his business account in Russia have been frozen.

Publication of the treatment in The Lancet

On December 22, 2020, the treating German doctors published a report on the effects and treatment of the severe poisoning by Novichok with the consent of Navalny. It was published in the medical journal The Lancet at the request of The Lancet, according to a press release.

According to the report, the detection of the nerve agent was not necessary for the start of treatment and the subsequent administration of life-saving atropine, this for 10 days, because the patient showed the typical symptoms of an acute cholinergic crisis . The treatment could fall back on the experiences of the treatment of poisoning with organophosphates, as it also occurs with pesticide poisoning. The atropine, already used in Omsk, was found in Navalny's blood. According to Ärzteblatt, it is an open question why the doctors in Omsk did not make the correct diagnosis despite the typical symptoms.

Results of the OPCW investigation

The German government asked the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for support on September 4, 2020. It followed Article VIII 38e of the Chemical Weapons Convention .

The laboratories named by the OPCW came to the conclusion after their investigations that the biomarkers of the cholinesterase inhibitor in Alexei Nawalny's blood and urine samples had similar structural properties to the toxic chemicals that belong to schedules 1.A.14 and 1.A.15 attached to the Annex to the Convention on Chemicals at the 24th session of the 2019 Conference. This new cholinesterase inhibitor is not listed as such in the appendix. The public announcement of the results took place on October 6th in The Hague.

An OPCW team was sent to Germany on September 5, 2020 and informed by the German authorities. The task for the team was limited to the collection of biomedical samples. No other information was disclosed. The visit to Navalny in the intensive care unit took place on September 6, 2020. Blood and urine samples were drawn and taken to an OPCW laboratory. At the request of the federal government, the samples were sent to selected laboratories on September 11, 2020. The biomarkers are named in the non-public ( classified ) report.

The Federal Government saw the results as confirmation of the earlier laboratory results and reserved the right to publish further details of the report. Steffen Seibert announced that the results of the reference laboratories commissioned by the OPCW agreed with the results that had already been achieved by special laboratories in Germany, Sweden and France. The Russian agency RIA , however, announced that "no prohibited substance" had been found. According to the NZZ, this only applies to the extent that the novel form of the neurotoxin was "not previously known and therefore not yet banned". The OPCW deduces from its results that Russia continues to develop neurotoxins from the Novichok group. According to the NZZ editorial team, this would be prohibited.

On September 23, the Russian government asked for test results, samples and materials to be made available in accordance with Convention Article 9, Paragraph 2.

On October 14th, Marc-Michael Blum from the OPCW stated that with biosamples with such a low concentration "no signatures could be found that would allow a comparison with a reference sample." Conclusions from chemical analysis on the origin are therefore currently impossible. One should wait and see what the OPCW might find in Russia.

Criminal investigation

No criminal investigation was initiated in any state until December 2020. Russia is locally responsible. Regional MPs in Tomsk, Pskov and Novosibirsk called on the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin , to start an investigation.

On December 17, Navalny was summoned to be questioned by the Berlin public prosecutor. The German Ministry of Justice announced that the interrogation would take place at the request of the Russian Public Prosecutor General. Navalny banned Russian officials from participating in the survey. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Justice said: “This crime needs to be solved in Russia. This requires an investigation commensurate with the gravity of the crime. All the information required for this, such as blood and tissue samples and items of clothing, is available in Russia. "

Events after Navalny's discharge from hospital

Chronology until December 14, 2020

On September 30th, Navalny told Spiegel in an interview that he held Putin responsible for the attack: "I claim that Putin was behind the crime." He also expressed his intention to return to Russia. Navalny was certain that the deployment and production could only come from the FSB, the SWR or the GRU and that their leaders Alexander Bortnikow , Sergei Naryschkin and Igor Kostjukow could not make this decision “without Putin's instructions”.

In an interview with Bild on October 7, 2020, he called for sanctions to be taken against Russia and for Nord Stream 2 to be discontinued. Gerhard Schröder was of the opinion that there are no reliable facts, "at least not about the fact who is responsible for this attack on Mr. Navalny". Navalny said that Schröder was “Putin's errand boy, the murderer protects”. This is his personal opinion as a lawyer who has investigated Rosneft and Gazprom for several years. “I don't have a document that says in black and white: Here, Mr. Schröder, this is your briefcase full of money. But I have no doubt that Schröder will receive covert payments. ”Schröder was then forced to take legal action on October 10, 2020. Schröder was criticized mainly from circles of the CDU; Norbert Röttgen accused him of "participating in cover-up attempts by the Russian security apparatus".

On October 13th, Navalny moved to an apartment in Ibach in the Waldshut district to relax .

The clinic director in Omsk, Alexander Murachowski, who, according to the Schweizer Tages-Anzeiger , had “embarrassed himself to the bone” several times with his statements to the press, was promoted from the clinic director to head of the Ministry of Health of the Omsk region on November 7th .

On December 12, the Sunday Times reported that intelligence sources knew that Navalny was about to be poisoned twice: in the hotel and in the hospital. Russian forces tried to prevent the evacuation of Navalny. The second attempt failed because of the atropine injected by paramedics Navalny. Traces of Novichok are also said to have been found on underwear, clothing and belts. The poison had been distributed in the hotel room by secret service employees. Navalny expressed surprise at the article.

Research group around Bellingcat and reactions

On December 14, 2020, the British investigative platform Bellingcat , the Russian research magazine The Insider and the American news channel CNN together with the German news magazine Der Spiegel published their joint investigation. After extensive research and evaluation of cell phone connections, GPS and location data from more than a dozen FSB agents, as well as analyzes of numerous passenger lists on Russian scheduled flights, they identified a group of eight FSB agents as the perpetrators in the attack on Navalny in Tomsk. The perpetrators therefore belonged to the cover organization Institute Forensic Sciences of the FSB with Vladimir Michailowitsch Bogdanow as head. They named Stanislaw Makschakow, Oleg Tajakin ("Tarasow"), Alexei Alexandrow ("Frolow"), Ivan Ossipow ("Spiridonow"), Konstantin Kudrjawzew ("Sokolow"), Alexei Krivoschtschekow and Michail Schwets ("Sokolow") as allegedly involved FSB officials Stepanov ”). These officials are said to have shadowed Navalny from 2017. Kudryavtsev and the alleged coordinator of the operation to poison Navalny, Oleg Tajakin, are said to have flown to the Russian coastal city of Sochi before the attack. Their cell phone data and geolocation should therefore prove that they were there near the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The research benefited from the black market for all kinds of data - telecommunications data , cell phone data, car numbers, addresses, passport data, booking data for flight and train tickets. At this point in time, such actually private data could be acquired on the Darknet / Internet, free of charge or at a moderate price.

On December 14, 2020, Navalny called Konstantin Kudrjawzew ("Sokolow") from Germany at 6:30 a.m. with a manipulated number so that he could believe that the call was coming from FSB headquarters. Navalny pretended to be Maxim Sergejewitsch Ustinov, a personal assistant to Nikolai Patrushev , former head of the FSB and secretary of the Russian Security Council . He pretended to have received Kudryavtsev's number from Vladimir Mikhailovich Bogdanov, the deputy head of the scientific and technical service and head of the FSB's special technology center. Ustinov should deliver a report to Bogdanov on the failed attack. Kudryavtsev, who claims to have contracted COVID-19 and was in quarantine, confirmed details and named those involved and the head of the group without Navalny mentioning them beforehand. In the phone call, Kudryavtsev said that after the emergency landing and the admission of Navalny to the hospital, he and another FSB agent traveled to Omsk to collect items of clothing from Navalny and remove traces of the poison. Kudryavtsev reported that residues had been removed from Navalny's blue panties. He explained the survival of Navalny with the interruption of the flight and the rapid treatment in Omsk.

At the Kremlin's annual press conference on December 17, 2020, President Putin said he saw no reason for Navalny being poisoned. "Who is he already? If you had wanted that, you would have brought it to an end. ”Nawalny's material on alleged agents came from American intelligence services. His access to such sources justified observation by the secret service, but that did not mean that he had to be poisoned.

The phone call was published as video and transcript on December 21, 2020. Under the heading “ I called my murderer. He confessed. “Nawalny published a recording of the phone call with the alleged FSB agent on his YouTube channel. This phone call was made possible by Christo Grozev, a journalist from Bulgaria and Bellingcat's chief investigator for Russia and one of the authors of the investigation into Navalny's poisoning. Grozev had previously investigated the shooting down of the Malaysian MH17 passenger plane over eastern Ukraine , the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and the Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrew. Grozev stated that Navalny had identified as the "target of an assassination attempt" in which no state was willing to investigate, neither Russia nor Germany. Bellingcat also released an analysis of the video footage and transcript.

Shortly after the phone call was published, there was a large police presence at the home address of the alleged FSB agent Kudryavzew in Moscow, as Nawalny's employee Lyubov Sobol documented on Twitter . She was later arrested and accused of trespassing, which she also filmed and published. The video shows that several journalists were there. On December 25, Sobol was arrested at her Moscow apartment, which was searched. Navalny said all equipment in Sobol's apartment had been confiscated by the security forces, including the seven-year-old daughter's cell phone. A few days earlier, Clarissa Ward , CNN's chief international correspondent , had visited the home address of Oleg Tajakin, the alleged FSB coordinator of the operation, whom Bellingcat had identified as the killer. A man at the front door declined to be interviewed, but Ward was not arrested.

In a message from the FSB to Russian news agencies on December 22, 2020, the phone call was described as a "provocation", stating that this was only possible with the help of foreign secret services in order to discredit the domestic secret service and that the transcript was forged.

Political reactions after the attack

Reactions from the German government

On August 24, on which the Charité published the first results, the German government assumed “with a certain probability” that the Russian opposition politician Navalny had been poisoned, with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas advising to wait and see. Gernot Erler , the former Federal Government Commissioner for Russia , assumed that a poison attack must have happened at least with the knowledge of the secret service and spoke of an "attempt to intimidate" the opposition.

On September 2, the German government published a statement in which it said that a special Bundeswehr laboratory had unequivocally detected a neurotoxin from the Novitschok group in the samples taken at the Charité by Nawalny. The fact that “Alexej Navalny was the victim of an attack with a chemical nerve agent in Russia” is “a dismaying event”, which the German government condemned “in the strongest”. She then summoned the Russian ambassador in Berlin , Sergei Nechayev , and asked the government of the Russian Federation to explain the results of the investigation. The federal government also announced that it would brief the EU, NATO and the German Bundestag and inform the OPCW of the results.

The federal government complied with Russia's request for legal assistance , but did not want to surrender a large part of the investigation files in order to preserve evidence and out of “confidentiality”. The final result was handed over to the OPCW, but "not the complete investigation file which is subject to confidentiality". Russia said it wanted to contact the OPCW.

The German government initially ruled out criminal action after a legal review it had requested, since the attack took place on Russian soil. In addition, there are concerns within the government that a legal investigation would have to reveal the analytical and detection methods of western laboratories and that this would facilitate further development of the toxins and make it more difficult to provide evidence in the future. Other law enforcement options were discussed in public.

Russian government reactions

On August 25, the Kremlin press spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, responded to the poisoning allegation made by the Russian authorities. He replied that it was not yet clear which cholinesterase inhibitor it was, nor whether the intoxication was due to an attack. He said doctors in Omsk had perceived the appearance of poisoning with a substance from the group of active ingredients called cholinesterase inhibitors, similar to the German doctors treating them. On August 27, 2020, the Russian police said they had started a preliminary investigation and secured possible evidence. The Russian General Prosecutor's Office further refused to initiate investigative proceedings and sent an initial request for legal assistance to the German Federal Government to submit analyzes and preliminary diagnoses.

The reaction of the Russian Government to early September, according to government spokesman, said it was ready for "full cooperation," the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that there was no evidence so far of poisoning Nawalnys, these statements was evaluated by the mirror as contradictory.

On September 6, the day of the special NATO meeting, the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed receipt of a request for mutual legal assistance from the Russian General Prosecutor's Office . The police in the Siberian Federal District said they had initiated preliminary investigations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow said: "If the information about toxic substances in the patient's samples is confirmed, then of course there is no doubt that the investigation will begin." In this case, count on the dialogue with the German colleagues.

On September 8, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador to Moscow, Géza Andreas von Geyr , for a meeting on September 9, since, as spokeswoman Maria Sakharova announced , “it was time to openly open the tickets because it is clear to everyone: Berlin is bluffing in order to serve dirty political fuss. ”For the time being, the German government had not provided Moscow with the exact results of the Bundeswehr special laboratory. She stated that she wanted to clarify the further procedure and further questions about the OPCW. The German ambassador in Moscow was told that the German government was being accused of "unconstructive behavior" in the Navalny case. Der Spiegel reported that the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on September 9 that Geyr had been warned at a meeting in Moscow that the German government's refusal to provide information in the Alexei Navalny case would be viewed as a "hostile provocation" that would have consequences.

On September 22nd, Dmitry Peskov accused Navalny employees of having removed a lot of evidence, which made the checks difficult.

According to a statement by Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch on Twitter on September 23, Navalny's accounts in Russia were frozen and his apartment in Moscow's Marjino district was confiscated. The court order was issued on August 27th.

On September 26, the Russian government accused Germany of obstructing the investigation that it violated the 1959 European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. The role of the OPCW's technical secretariat was also questioned.

On October 1, Dmitry Peskov accused Alexei Navalny of being controlled by the CIA . The Duma spokesman Vyacheslav Volodin assumed a staging by Western secret services. In connection with the protests in Belarus, they wanted to “put pressure on Russia”.

On October 8th, Ambassador Sergei Nechayev criticized the Foreign Office for being biased and for having an “opaque agenda”. The medical samples of Navalny showed no signs of poisoning, the poisoning could not have taken place on Russian soil.

The Russian government reacted to the EU's sanctions on October 16, 2020 by announcing “mirror-image” counter-sanctions and the possible suspension of further dialogue.

In the international “Valdai” discussion club 2020, Vladimir Putin made his first public statement on poisoning at the video conference panel on October 22, 2020 at the request of a German journalist. Putin confirmed that after an interview by Nawalny's wife, he had supported the departure despite existing legal travel restrictions. He complained that Germany had still not responded to the requests for mutual legal assistance. The German side had provided neither biological material nor the official report on the "Novitschok" analyzed. He expressed doubts about the investigations because the OPCW had come to a different analysis result (not "Novitschok") and again offered joint investigations.

On November 6, the police in Siberia announced that the poisoning diagnosis was incorrect. In their final report, Russian doctors had stated that Navalny had suffered from pancreatitis and a metabolic disorder.

After Russia had already announced countermeasures against the European Union's sanctions in November, the Russian Foreign Ministry expanded the list of people who are not allowed to enter the country on December 22nd. Several EU countries, including Germany and France, are affected by the entry bans. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cited as a reason : "Because Germany was the engine for the EU sanctions in connection with Navalny and because the sanctions affect senior staff in the Russian presidential administration, our answer will be mirrored." The names of those affected are not mentioned, they find out only upon entry from the sanctions.

NATO reactions

On September 4, after a special meeting, NATO called on the Russian government to agree to international investigations into the poison attack and to disclose its program on the Novichok neurotoxin to the OPCW. The poisoning was rated as a serious breach of international law.

EU reactions (including sanctions)

125 members of the Parliament of the European Union called for an international investigation with the participation of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. They expressed skepticism about the ability and will of the Russian authorities to investigate the case. It was proposed that an investigation be carried out by the UN and the Council of Europe. The participation of the OPCW is also conceivable. The initiator of the letter was the Green MP Sergey Lagodinsky .

On September 24, the EU threatened Russia with sanctions. Council President Charles Michel called for a debate on the consequences.

On October 7, the foreign ministers of Germany and France, Heiko Maas and Jean-Yves Le Drian, published a joint statement calling for sanctions: Russia had not made a credible statement on the case. There is no plausible explanation for the poisoning of Mr. Navalny other than Russian responsibility and involvement.

On October 12, 2020, the foreign ministers of the EU countries agreed to prepare sanctions. The responsible body is supposed to sanction individuals "who are considered responsible for this crime and the violation of international legal norms due to their official function, as well as for an institution that is involved in the Novichok program".

The EU sanctions were announced on October 15th. Entry bans and account freezes were imposed on: Alexander Bortnikow, Siberia Commissioner Sergei Menjajlo , Sergei Kirijenko , employee of the domestic politician Andrei Jarin , the Deputy Defense Ministers Pavel Popow and Alexei Krivorutschko and the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin who is close to President Putin . In addition, the Russian State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology was sanctioned.

The sanctions against the research institute were justified by the fact that the Novichok group's use of a toxic nerve agent was only possible "if the institute had not fulfilled its responsibility to destroy stocks of chemical weapons."

The Russian Federation reacted to the sanctions on November 11, 2020 with the threat of “mirror-image” counter-sanctions, particularly against Germany and France.

US reactions

MPs asked the President to have the poisoning investigated independently. The Foreign Policy Committee invoked legally possible sanctions for the use of chemical or biological weapons, similar to those in 2018 in connection with the Skripal case. The letter to President Donald Trump was signed by representatives from both parties. US President Donald Trump said there was no evidence yet. However, he would be "very angry" if government cooperation were shown, reiterating his earlier call for Nord Stream 2 to be halted.

Council of Europe reactions

The Council of Europe announced its intention to investigate the case and publish a report. He believes that the return of Russian MPs to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will show that they intend to abide by the rules of the organization. Members of the relevant committee would travel to Russia, this would require contact with the Russian authorities to clarify all circumstances and evidence.

Reactions of German parties and politicians

The left

Die Linke warned against “prejudice” and declared the suspicion of the Russian government to be implausible. Gregor Gysi suspects the masterminds of the attack in the camp of the Nord Stream 2 opponents such as the USA or Ukraine.

According to the Tagesspiegel , a statement by Dietmar Bartsch on September 3, 2020, that the German government's seldom hard reaction was appropriate , led to internal party conflicts . Klaus Ernst, on the other hand, asked about the cui bono of the attack, which Matthias Höhn rejected. Also Andrej Hunko and Jan van Aken are alleging Tagesspiegel as "Kremlin-friendly". The Tagesspiegel saw parallels with the party's reaction to the Skripal case, in which the parliamentary group, led by Sevim Dağdelen, allegedly took over the Russian government's catalog of questions in a small question. Amira Mohamed Ali called for the crime to be solved, but refused to end Nord Stream 2, pointing out that the fact that the US itself imports Russian oil shows: "It's not about human rights, it's about economic interests."

Alternative for Germany

AfD politicians like Gunnar Lindemann represented views similar to “Die Linke” . In the current hours on September 11, said Tino Chrupalla of suspicion without conclusive evidence. The main aim is to persuade Germany to import expensive and highly toxic US fracking gas.

CDU / CSU

The Union parliamentary group's vice-chairman, Johann Wadephul , questioned whether Russia could be a trustworthy international partner, since it threatened “our order based on values and rules”.

On December 22nd, 2020, the German CDU politician Paul Ziemiak asked Gerhard Schröder to apologize in view of the "overwhelming evidence" at Navalny and to condemn those behind the scenes after he had expressed doubts in September.

Alliance 90 / The Greens

For the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen party , the attempted murder of Navalny again reveals the Kremlin's “mafia-like character”. Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Manuel Sarrazin , spokesman for Eastern European policy, declared in a press release on September 2 that political murder had been a means of keeping Vladimir Putin's system in power for years. Katrin Göring-Eckhart called for consequences, for example an end to Nord Stream 2.

The foreign policy spokesman for the Greens, Jürgen Trittin , spoke of a “perverse revitalization of Soviet methods of rule”. The gas pipeline project must be stopped, especially since it is superfluous and contradicts European climate policy.

SPD

The SPD chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans called the attack “outrageous”. Borjans saw it in the interests of the Russian government itself to clarify "quickly and unconditionally".

FDP

As a consequence of the attack, the FDP demanded a sanctions law to punish human rights violations. These should also be used in cases such as the murder of Jamal Kashoggi and the internment of the Uyghurs . Reference is made to the Magnitsky laws as a comparable regulation .

Conspiracy myths

Russian media alleged poisoning by Maria Pevchich. Her father, with whom she says she has not had any contact for 15 years after her parents divorced, developed a special injection needle with which substances can be introduced into the body without them getting into the bloodstream. In these reports, Pevchich was assumed to be close to British authorities and to Vladimir Ashurkov , who allegedly fell out with Navalny . Her connection to Great Britain goes back to a time 10 years ago when she was an intern with a British politician as a student.

On September 14, President Putin reportedly told France President Emmanuel Macron by telephone that Navalny might have self-administered the neurotoxin.

The Charité was charged with falsifying results. "Opponents of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline" were also thought to be possible clients.

Reception in the population of Russia

In Russia, around 78 percent of people surveyed by the Levada Center said in December 2020 that they were informed about Navalny's poisoning, and 17 percent of those surveyed said they would follow developments closely. Of those who had heard of the poisoning, 30 percent thought the poisoning was a staged fake, 19 percent a provocation by the Western special services, 15 percent an action by Russian authorities, and 7 percent an act of revenge by one of the people involved in Navalny's investigation were affected. 6 percent for expressing conflicts within the Russian opposition, 1 percent suspected health problems of Navalny's, 4 percent opted for “another reason”. 19 percent found it difficult to give an answer. The opinions correlated with the sources of information (Internet or television), the critical attitude towards the government and with age: Young people critical of the government who obtained information on the Internet were more likely to blame the authorities than older people who obtained information via television and the government rather trust.

literature

David Steindl, Wolfgang Boehmerle, Roland Körner et al .: Novichok nerve agent poisoning. The Lancet, December 22, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32644-1

Web links

Telephone conversation between Navalny and Konstantin Kudrjawzew with English subtitles. Bellingcat dated December 21, 2020, accessed December 25, 2020.

Individual evidence

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↑ https://www.europeanpressprize.com/laureate/christo-grozev/

^ "If it Hadn't Been for the Prompt Work of the Medics": FSB Officer Inadvertently Confesses Murder Plot to Navalny. December 21, 2020, accessed December 23, 2020 (UK English).

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