(LibertySociety.com) – On August 20, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny fell ill on a flight to Moscow. In the days after, the world learned he was the victim of a poisoning in an apparent assassination attempt. Recently, an investigative organization, Bellingcat, released a bombshell report blaming the incident on Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he’s now denying.
The Report
On December 14, Bellingcat published an extensive report about Navalny’s poisoning that alleged the Russian government followed him for years before the incident that almost killed him. Investigators claimed operatives from the FSB, the country security agency, specialized in “chemical weapons, chemistry, and medicine.”
The agents were apparently working with a Russian chemical lab, and that’s thought to be how they got the Novichok nerve agent used in the assassination attempt. Navalny fell ill on the flight in August, telling a flight attendant that he was poisoned. The captain decided to make an emergency landing in Omsk, Russia. Navalny fell into a coma, and a few days later, he was sent to a hospital in Germany. Doctors there determined the Soviet-era nerve agent poisoned him.
Putin’s Denial
The report made waves last week, and the Kremlin ignored it for a few days. On Thursday, however, Putin decided to speak out.
During a news conference in Moscow, Putin didn’t deny that his agents were following Navalny. However, he laughed at the allegations that the government had anything to do with the poisoning. The Russian leader said that if they wanted to do that, he would be dead.
Strangely, the people involved were reportedly experts in chemicals, but the world is supposed to believe they failed to kill him. It’s almost hard to believe they fumbled the operation if Putin was truly involved. But we just don’t know the truth, and the US doesn’t seem to be involved in investigating the allegations.
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