MOSCOW (AP) – One of the main associates of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was arrested on Friday after the door of an alleged security guard who inadvertently revealed details of Navalny’s alleged poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Lyubov Sobol, a key figure at the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, was detained for 48 hours after a day of interrogation on charges of violent invasion. The move came after Sobol’s attempt on Monday to enter the alleged agent’s Moscow apartment, whom Navalny had previously misled to describe details of the alleged poisoning.
Sobol denied the charges and insisted that he did not violate any law by ringing the apartment bell. While Sobol was being questioned, the state’s Investigation Committee issued a statement accusing it of trespassing – accusations that its colleagues rejected.
Earlier this week, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man he identified as Konstantin Kudryavtsev and described as an alleged member of a group of Federal Security Service officials, or FSB, who allegedly poisoned him with the Agent Novichok from the Soviet era in August and then tried to cover it up.
Navalny, who is convalescing in Germany, said he called the man hours before the investigative group Bellingcat released a report alleging that FSB agents with specialized chemical weapons training had followed him for years and were nearby when he was poisoned.
On the call, Navalny introduced himself as a security officer and induced his interlocutor to share details of the alleged poisoning operation and to acknowledge that he was involved in the “processing” of Navalny’s underwear to “have no trace” of poison.
Navalny fell ill during the August 20 flight in Russia and was taken to Berlin while still in a coma for treatment two days later. Laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.
Russian authorities vehemently denied any involvement in the poisoning, and the FSB dismissed Navalny’s recording as false.