Western intelligence services fabricate different versions about the attempted assassination on Russian opposition activist and blogger Alexei Navalny, claiming that their versions are based on reliable data. Why doesn't Moscow have its own reliable version of Navalny poisoning?
Western media outlets widely advertise Bellingcat's investigation into the "poisoning" of Alexei Navalny. The oppositionist himself published a photo of FSB officers who allegedly had been following him all over Russia since 2017 in order to eventually poison him.
Based on open data or marketable "databases" about flights and phone calls, it was concluded that the above-mentioned FSB officers always flew with Navalny at all times and were on board the plane at the time, when he felt unwell. Allegedly, the officers have "either medical or chemical education and specialization."
Furthermore, one of those men is believed to be associated with the institutes that allegedly work in the field of chemical weapons.
"We see that doctors from the FSB, who obtained Novichok at a secret institute, using their cover service passports, traveled with me twice. Incidents of poisoning occurred in two places," Navalny concluded.
The material portrays FSB officers as bloodthirsty murderers, traitors (they sell their databases), and they are led by the President of Russia - a country that is nothing but another "banana republic" for the world, a dangerous one. This message is designed to reach the "international community", and it is not only the West, but also the East that listens to this message.
"We are dealing with a state-run operation. This is not about a group of FSB officers, who work on the orders of an oligarch or an official whom I offended with my investigation. This is a whole FSB department, which, under the supervision of high-ranking officials, has been conducting an operation for two years already, in order to kill me and members of my family with the help of chemical weapons that they obtain from a secret state-run laboratory. Of course, an operation of this scale and duration cannot be organized by anyone other than FSB chief Bortnikov, and he would never have dared to do all that without Putin's order," Navalny wrote.
Why does Moscow have no clear and conclusive version of what happened to the oppositionist? Why are we losing the information war yet again? Vladimir Putin once said that the West may continue to impose their sanctions, but they would burn in hell, while the Russians would go straight to paradise. Isn't that too simple and easy? Don't we need to take an effort or two to try to prove something for the sake of generations to come?
Retired FSB lieutenant colonel, president of the Union Officers of Alpha Group, Alexei Filatov, told Pravda.Ru that the Russian administration tends not to investigate this incident, because there was no murder committed in fact.
The expert noted with regret that the information, on the basis of which the Bellingcat investigation was conducted, could indeed be obtained from open sources and closed bases.
"Secret databases for the movement of vehicles, the movement of telephones and their owners - unfortunately, one can buy all that in Russia right now, right at the computer," Alexey Filatov told Pravda.Ru. He is confident that the data, which was indicated in this particular case was purchased for millions of dollars.
"No matter how hard we try to fight against it, there always people, at all levels, unfortunately, who are ready to sell secret data. The only question is the price," said the expert.
Alexei Filatov believes that political will is needed for a Russian version of the Navalny incident to materialize.
The weakest point in the Bellingcat investigation is the linking of external surveillance over Navalny to the alleged producers of Novichok through a long chain of persons, starting from the assassination attempt on former spy Sergei Skripal. Furthermore, the seriousness of the preparation for the "murder" does not correspond to the final unsuccessful result (why didn't they learn from the "poisoning" of Skripal?) and Navalny's wish to return to Russia. Navalny admitted in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station that he knew nothing about the "double attempt" on his life, as the Times reported. In a nutshell, the Germans have a different version, which proves the doubtfulness of them both.