Research by the investigative platforms Bellingcat and “The Insider”, the news magazine “Der Spiegel” and the US news broadcaster CNN are among the hottest topics in Russia. The otherwise quick-witted propagandists of the state media are initially unable to counter this.
The collected documents, including travel documents and telephone connection data of the agents, are now to be used to force an investigation in Russia against the FSB. Individual politicians also want to file criminal charges against the FSB.
Navalny tells in the video how easy it is to buy connection and billing data from mobile phone providers and passenger lists from airlines thanks to Russian law. Navalny explains in the video that he was shadowed by the same agents on around 30 routes during business trips – also on August 20, the day of the Novichok attack in the Siberian city of Tomsk. The murder plot is cleared up, he emphasizes.
Experts also consider the allegations difficult to refute. “The investigation is very convincing,” writes the political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya in her channel in the Telegram news service. Above all, it was a complete defeat for the secret service, which was easily exposed. Putin will have to do a lot to get this out of the world, she says.
Even those who had long defended Putin would suddenly be silent or wonder why the Kremlin would not oppose this. The expert has long suspected that parts of the Russian elite could turn away from Putin because they did not want to have anything to do with state-organized crimes.
The Russian leadership has so far declined to investigate because the Kremlin says there is no evidence of a crime or poisoning. Putin, for example, thinks that it is not always necessary to investigate immediately because someone is almost dying. The conspiracy theory is particularly widespread in Kremlin circles, according to which western secret services purposely poisoned Navalny in order to pillory Russia and punish it with sanctions.
Germany, on the other hand, sees Russia as responsible for investigating the attack. The EU has imposed sanctions on senior Russian officials for the attempted murder. The EU relies on laboratory tests in the Bundeswehr, France and Sweden. According to the findings, the chemical weapons ban was unequivocally detected in Navalny’s organism.
Navalny, while sitting in a white kitchen in Germany, affirmed that he was planning to return to Russia after completing his rehab. The time depends on the consent of the doctors. There are several criminal proceedings to deter him. But he emphasized: “I am returning to Russia, which is my country – and I have something to do in my country.” In the next year’s parliamentary elections, he wants to do everything possible to break the monopoly of the Kremlin party, United Russia.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201215-99-699336 / 4
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