Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza seeks investigation into FSB involvement in poisoning attacks
Oppositionist Vladimir Kara-Murza has appealed to Russia’s Investigative Committee seeking an investigation into reports implicating FSB agents in two apparent attempts on his life.
This comes after Bellingcat and its Russian investigative partner The Insider published an investigation revealing that FSB officers were tailing Kara-Murza prior to his near-fatal poisonings in 2015 and 2017.
Kara-Murza is demanding the launch of a criminal investigation for attempted murder and is seeking the prosecution of FSB agents Roman Mezentsev, Alexander Samofal, Valery Sukharev, and Konstantin Kudryavtsev, all of whom were named in the journalistic report.
On February 11, Bellingcat and The Insider published an investigation revealing that FSB agents implicated in the August 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, were also linked to two apparent assassination attempts on Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Less than a week later, Kara-Murza reported suspicions that he was being surveilled in Moscow. The Insider and Bellingcat traced the car following him back to the FSB.
Who’s Konstantin Kudryavtsev?
On December 14, Bellingcat, The Insider, CNN, and Der Spiegel published a joint investigation implicating a special FSB sub-unit in poisoning Alexey Navalny with a Novichok-type nerve agent. Konstantin Kudryavtsev was among the operatives identified in the report. On December 21, Navalny shared a video revealing that he had managed to fool Kudryavtsev into detailing the Kremlin’s poisoning operation. Among other things, the alleged FSB agent divulged that the poison used on Navalny was applied to the inside of a pair of his underwear.