Navalny releases recording of call to his alleged poisoner

MOSCOW — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Monday released a recording of a phone call he said he made to an alleged state security operative, who revealed some details of how the politician was supposedly poisoned and media identified as a member of a team that has reportedly trailed Navalny for years. During the recorded call, the man said that if the plane hadn’t made an emergency landing, “the situation would have turned out differently.” The man, who was named in a news report last week as an operative from Russia’s FSB domestic security agency, pointed to Navalny’s underwear as a place where the substance that poisoned the politician may have been planted. Last week, the investigative group Bellingcat released a report alleging that operatives from Russia’s FSB domestic security agency followed Navalny during his trips since 2017, had “specialized training in chemical weapons, chemistry and medicine,” and some of them were “in the vicinity” of Navalny in the timeframe “during which he was poisoned.” The investigation, conducted by Bellingcat and Russian news outlet The Insider in cooperation with CNN and German news outlet Der Spiegel, identified the supposed FSB operatives after analyzing telephone metadata and flight information. The man on the other end replied “it would have all gone differently” if the plane hadn’t made the emergency landing and “if not for the prompt work of the ambulance medics on the runway.” When Navalny asked which of item of clothing bore the highest concentration of the toxin, the man said it was the underwear. He said that means Navalny “relies on the support of U.S. special services.” “It’s curious, and in that case, special services indeed need to keep an eye on him,” Putin said.