Navalny 'totally sure' Putin was aware of shadowing operation before he was poisoned

Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny recently said that he is certain President Vladimir Putin knew of an elaborate shadowing operation by elite agents before he was poisoned. In an interview with CNN on December 15, Navalny said that he is “totally sure that Putin was aware”. He said that the operation of such skill and for such a long time cannot exist without a ruling from the chief of Russian Security Service (FSB). He added that he would never dare it without the direct order of President Putin. 

Navalny’s remarks come after an investigative journalism website Bellingcat claimed that an undercover hit squad working for Russia’s FSB spy agency poisoned Navalny after shadowing him on his previous trips. Citing telecoms and travel details, it alleged that Russia’s Federal Security Service was behind the failed assassination attempt. Elaborating further, the report said the Russian agency started tracking him in 2017 when it was first announced that he was contesting against President Vladimir Putin.

READ: Putin Critic Alexei Navalny Wishes To Return To Russia Despite 'terrorist Attack' On Him

‘Undercover’ FSB agents involved 

According to Bellingcat, the squad of Russian security service officers initially tried to poison him on his personal trip to Kaliningrad with his wife Yulia in July. It added that the FSB agents then followed him to Novosibirsk in Siberia and then to Tomsk, where he was eventually poisoned. All members of the unit reportedly communicated with each other throughout the trip and the evidence seen by Bellingcat suggested that the communication rose and hours when Navalany left his hotel for the airport.

READ: Navalny Video Details Investigation Into Alleged Poisoners

Further, the report also identified three "undercover" FSB agents involved. These operatives, two of whom travelled undercover identities, are Alexey Alexandrov, Ivan Osipov, both medical doctors, and Vladimir Panyaev. "These three were supported and supervised by at least five more FSB operatives, some of whom also travelled to Omsk, where Navalny had been hospitalized," the website stated.

While Moscow has remained silent on the report, Navalny called it a "genuine terrorist attack" adding that it could not have been done without President Putin’s permission. Navalny fell sick under mysterious circumstances on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on August 20. He was rushed to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing. Navalny was put into an artificial coma and was moved to Germany after much debate over his transfer. German doctors later confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with the lethal chemical agent Novichok and that traces of the former Soviet-era chemical weapon was found in his blood. 

READ: Putin Critic Navalny Survived Second Assassination Attempt When He Was In Coma: Report

READ: Russia Under Pressure To Explain Navalny Poisoning