On Jan. 27, a reputable team of investigators from the Bellingcat organization published a report regarding the activities of the Russian security services’ poison squad. Investigators linked several Federal Security Service (FSB) operatives and civilian chemists to the death of journalist and activist Timur Kuashev in Kabardino-Balkaria in 2014, activist Ruslan Magomedragimov in Dagestan in 2015, and pro-Kremlin politician Nikita Isaev in 2019. The new investigation followed in the footsteps of the open-source intelligence outfit’s previous efforts to identify the people and organizations behind the poisoning of the prominent Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny with a military-grade chemical agent known as Novichok. Bellingcat convincingly showed that a group of at least eight people made up of FSB officers and chemists connected to the Russian security services were engaged in the poisoning of Navalny. Later, under the pretense of being a top Russian government official, the Russian opposition leader spoke on the phone with one of the members of the squad who confirmed many of the conclusions of the investigators.
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Valery Dzutsati: Poisonings of activists in the North Caucasus
This file photo taken on Sept. 23, 2020, shows a mock offer of "Novichok Tea" in front of an effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin outside the Russian embassy on Unter den Linden avenue in Berlin.
