Russian officials investigate the cop who allegedly leaked the flight data used to identify Navalny’s FSB poisoners

A senior police officer from Samara is reportedly suspected of leaking the flight records mentioned in recent investigative reporting that tied members of Russia’s Federal Security Service to a plot against opposition figure Alexey Navalny, sources told the news outlet RBC. Detectives apparently studied queries submitted to the “Rozysk Magistral” (Search Highway) database and identified Lieutenant Kirill Chuprov. RBC’s sources did not say where Chuprov supposedly sold these data.

The officer now faces felony charges for abuse of office. On December 29, he was placed under house arrest while awaiting trial. Detectives are also investigating Chuprov’s department supervisor. 

In mid-December 2020, multiple investigative news outlets published evidence that Russian federal agents followed Alexey Navalny for years to cities across the country. On December 21, Navalny shared a recording of a telephone call with Konstantin Kudryavtsev, one of the alleged FSB agents supposedly involved in the plot against Navalny. In the call, Kudryavtsev seemed to confirm investigative reporters’ findings — namely, that the FSB tried to kill Navalny.

The FSB has denied allegations that it poisoned Navalny, saying journalists fabricated the incriminating evidence (including the phone call with Kudryavtsev). Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev later shared the raw travel data used to track the FSB team that followed Navalny.

On January 17, 2021, after months of recuperating in Germany from the nerve-agent attack, Navalny returned to Moscow, where he was promptly arrested for violating the terms of his parole in a previous conviction. He’s now being held in prison, pending trial, and could be sentenced to years more behind bars.