Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza says he’s under surveillance in Moscow

Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza has reported that he is being followed once again — this comes less than a week after Bellingcat and its Russian investigative partner The Insider revealed that FSB agents were tailing Kara-Murza prior to his near-fatal poisonings in 2015 and 2017.

Kara-Murza told The Insider that on Monday, February 15, he noticed people in plainclothes tailing him in a car; when he transferred to public transport they followed him into the metro. These suspicious figures also sat at the table next to him in a cafe.

Although Kara-Murza managed to photograph the vehicle following him, it’s license plate number — У563СА — couldn’t be found in the available traffic police databases. Sources in the traffic police told Bellingcat that this plate number is assigned to the FSB. 

According to Kara-Murza, he was followed often in the regions, but he doesn’t remember external surveillance following him in Moscow.

On February 11, Bellingcat and The Insider published an investigation revealing that the FSB agents implicated in the August 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, were linked to two apparent assassination attempts on Vladimir Kara-Murza. According to the investigation, the FSB were tailing Kara-Murza during his trips across Russia just before he was poisoned in 2015 and 2017.