The US intelligence community believes that the Russian FSB was involved in what happened to the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK, included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent) Alexei Navalny. This was reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the US administration.
The statement, cited in particular by CNN, emphasizes that such a conclusion was made “with a high degree of certainty”.
Earlier it became known that the chairman of the Investigative Committee (IC) of Russia Alexander Bastrykin, director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Alexander Kalashnikov, head of the Russian Guard Viktor Zolotov, as well as Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov fell under the sanctions of the European Union in connection with the situation around Navalny.
On February 2, the Simonovsky Court of Moscow replaced the oppositionist’s suspended sentence with a real one for violating the conditions for observing the probationary period in the Yves Rocher case. He will stay in the colony for 2 years and 6 months, taking into account the year spent under house arrest during the preliminary investigation. The European Court of Human Rights has demanded that the Russian government release Alexei Navalny from prison as an interim measure. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the ECHR ruling an attempt to put pressure on Russia.
On August 20, 2020, Navalny’s health sharply deteriorated during the flight from Tomsk to Moscow, the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. On August 22, he was taken to a Berlin clinic, whose specialists announced that traces of a substance from the Novichok group had been found in the Russian’s body. Russian doctors, asserted that no poisons were found. After his recovery, Navalny announced that the Russian leadership was involved in his poisoning.