Aleksei Navalny catches alleged Russian agent confessing to poisoning

Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny was poisoned in August. Photo / AP

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has released an audio confession from one of the men allegedly behind his near-fatal poisoning, following a sting operation in which Navalny called the man and posed as a Russian intelligence official.

The confession further adds to the acute embarrassment of the Russian intelligence community after an independent investigation into Navalny's poisoning last week detailed a fully-fledged state-run operation to try to kill the the 44-year-old opposition leader.

Navalny fell ill suddenly on a plane from Siberia to Moscow in August before it made an emergency landing at a nearby airport. He was eventually transferred to a hospital in Germany and lay in a coma for weeks. Several European laboratories have since confirmed that he was poisoned with the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Navalny yesterday published a recording of his 49-minute sting call to Konstantin Kudryavtsev, an alleged Russian intelligence agent, in which he introduces himself as an aide to the FSB intelligence agency head.

Navalny said he made the call last week, a few hours before independent investigative group Bellingcat released its investigation, which identified Kudryavtsev and several other agents as tailing the opposition leader for days before poisoning him.

He told the man - believed to be Kudryavtsev, one of the FSB agents with medical training who were trailing him - that he needed to debrief him for a report for Nikolai Patrushev, the FSB chief.

Russian spy duped into revealing details of plot to poison opposition leader Alexey Navalny @clarissaward reports @PamelaBrownCNN pic.twitter.com/FPHfqJ0DqL

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) December 21, 2020

The man described to Navalny how he was sent to Siberia to make sure there were no traces of Novichok left on his clothes. He also confirmed that Navalny would have been dead if the plane had not made an emergency landing.

"If he were in the air for longer, and they hadn't landed in such an abrupt way, possibly things would have not gone the way they did," the man told Navalny.

The man insisted that he was not aware of all the details of the operation but said that they had been instructed to wash Navalny's underpants, which were supposed to have the highest concentration of the toxin.

Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny was poisoned in August. Photo / AP

Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokesman, told The Daily Telegraph yesterday that his team could not categorically say how he was poisoned but that the conversation with the agent suggested the toxin may have been smeared on his underpants.

Or the toxin may have been introduced another way but was most easily detected in clothes around sweatier parts of the body.

Just before hanging up, the man believed to be Kudryavtsev was heard asking the fake FSB aide if it was okay that they were speaking on an unsecured phone line.

Vladimir Putin last week denied involvement in Navalny's poisoning, but confirmed FSB agents were trailing him, claiming that he was a target as someone with alleged links to foreign intelligence.