DISINFO: Russian intelligence reveals that Navalny’s poisoning may have been a ‘sacred sacrifice’
SUMMARY
The Navalny case is in the spotlight again after the revelations made by the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Narishkin, to the show Soloviov Live. He said that his service received trustful and verified information about a meeting in a European country between secret services, so-called funds, NGO’s and governmental structures to back protest movements in Russia, then on the verge of disappearing. In this meeting, the convenience of making a sacred sacrifice was debated, and better if it was one of the leaders of the protest movement. Parallels can be established with the events in Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative about Alexei Navalny and Russia’s opposition movement, aiming to discredit both by framing them as destabilisation tools of foreign governments.
Contrary to the claim, Alexei Navalny wasn’t targeted by Western secret services in a false flag operation, the meaning of the term 'sacred sacrifice' in Russia's contemporary lexicon, in order to revitalise protest movements in Russia. It has been established, beyond any doubt, that Navalny was poisoned by Russian FSB operatives in an assassination attempt involving the use of chemical weapons, for which the European Union has sanctioned 6 individuals and one Russian entity.
There is unequivocal evidence proving that Navalny was deliberately poisoned in a murder attempt, as established by initial clinical findings at the Charité hospital which indicated that he had been intoxicated with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. Subsequent toxicological tests established the presence of a Novichok-type chemical nerve agent in Navalny's blood.
On 14 December 2020, a special investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, CNN and Der Spiegel identified members of the Russian FSB unit involved in the attempt on Navalny’s life. According to the New York Times, the report was also consistent with the information on the case gathered by German intelligence services. Bellingcat also provided a detailed account of the methods used to identify the FSB operatives. A week later, on 21 December, Navalny disclosed a recorded conversation in which a member of the suspected FSB poisoning squad describes how his unit carried out, and attempted to clean up evidence of, the poisoning of Alexey Navalny.
See other examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives on Alexei Navalny’s poisoning in our database, such as claims that only caffeine and alcohol were found in his blood, that the US wanted to use it to block Russia's vaccine against coronavirus, that the West hopes that he dies to have an excuse for new sanctions, or that Western accusations on Navalny’s case are as false as they were about Sergei Skripal and Alexander Litvinenko.