Russian authorities question Navalny's mental health after FSB agent's damning confession

Russian authorities on Tuesday, December 22 responded to Alexei Navalny’s audio clip wherein he could be heard talking to presumably an FSB operative about the poisoning plot and said that the opposition leader was mentally unsound. Speaking at a Press Conference, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that Navalny’s shocking phone call was a fabrication and a sign of his "delusions of grandeur … and persecution". Questioning his mental health further, Peskov stated that the opposition leader was "fixated … in a Freudian fashion" and "even compares himself to Jesus".

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny seems to have duped an FSB operative into confessing the state agency's role in the poisoning plot and revealing that nerve agent was administered to the Putin critic via his underwear. An audio clip of the conversation between Navalny and FSB agent Konstantin Kudryavtsev was shared by Bellingcat, which previously reported of FSB’s involvement in the assassination attempt of the opposition leader.

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Read: Putin-critic Navalny Tricks Russian Agent Into Admitting Poisoning His Underwear: Reports

'Contaminated by Novichok'

As per reports, Kudryavtsev could be heard admitting in the clip that Navalny's underwear was contaminated by Novichok in his hotel room in Omsk. For his investigative operation, Navalny is reported to have phoned two members of Russia’s spy agency. While one recognised him immediately and hung up, the other, Kudryavtev, was seemingly tricked into thinking he was a top FSB general. Posing as "Maxim Ustinov", Navalny then asked Kudryavtsev for details of the operation and demanded to know what had gone wrong.

Unaware that he was being tricked, the Russian official admitted that FSB was behind his poisoning. Kudryavtev said that he and his colleagues had applied Novichok on the "inner seams" of Navalny’s boxer shorts while he was staying at a hotel in Siberia. Elaborating further, Kudryavtsev said that a reconnaissance team had previously visited the Xander hotel and switched off the camera.

It was then on August 18, Kudryavtsev said, that a team went in and applied poison on his underwear, which was cleaned after the operation. Two days later, Navalny wore the poisoned garments and felt terribly ill on the airplane bringing him to Moscow. 

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(With agency inputs)