Alexey Navalny’s deputy Maria Pevchikh discusses his near-fatal poisoning, her probe of Kremlin corruption, and battling Moscow while he’s in exile.
, in 2015], who had presence, too—though a very different person. But what I had never seen before are these investigations by Navalny and his team, posted online, in which you do things like fly a drone over the property of, the second most powerful person in the country, and show his magnificent house, his property, his farm animals, his cars.
These YouTube investigations, these speeches and trips of Navalny’s, accumulated over time. And, to put it lightly, the aggravation in the Kremlin increased. At what point did Navalny and your team get the sense that you would no longer be tolerated, and Navalny’s life was in danger? The answer is very, very simple. They didn’t want anybody to find out that the Kremlin and Putin was behind it. I’ll give you a very realistic scenario; it’s the conclusion and the working hypothesis of both us and Bellingcat. The plan was that they poison Navalny; he gets on the plane; the flight is rather long from Tomsk to Moscow—around five hours, probably more. That would be enough for him to pass out and die.
I am a strong believer that the simplest solution—the simplest answer—is actually the correct one in most of these situations. I think that someone approached Putin, because it’s obviously Putin’s personal decision; even Putin himself says that it was his decision to let Navalny go. I think he spoke to his F.S.B. generals, to his advisers, and whoever is running that secret state assassination program. And he asked how long Novichok would be traceable in the body.
Another set of criminal charges are going to be brought against him, probably in the month. A case against Navalny as the leader of an “extremist/terrorist organization,” and against us all as the employees of that. So that legal status allows him to see and communicate with his lawyers, who can meet with him and discuss anything with him, from the defense strategy to the content of the actual case. This is how we know how well he’s doing.Well, it’s not good. I don’t like delivering bad news.
Can he be killed tomorrow? Yes. But this is not how I operate. I like to operate on different assumptions. I genuinely think it is possible to get him out., the militarization of Russian society—what possible motive would there be for Putin to make that decision?
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