Several media outlets have published the names of alleged Russian agents. They were responsible for the poison attack on the Russian opposition politician.

According to research by several media outlets, at least eight Russian secret service agents are said to have carried out the poison attack on the opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

German weekly Der Spiegel published eight names of alleged employees of the domestic secret service FSB on Monday. The investigative journalists of the magazine conducted joint research with the investigative platform Bellingcat, The Insider and the US news channel CNN. Mr. Navalny also spread the news: I know who wanted to kill me, he said and also published photos of eight men in his nearly one hour video program.

The FSB agents have always traveled, allegedly with a poison,
spying on Navalny family, even during their vacation.

The alleged participants were identified after evaluating cell phone connections, GPS and location data from more than a dozen FSB agents and analyzing numerous passenger lists for Russian scheduled flights, reported Der Spiegel. This data also makes possible to understand that the opposition leader is said to have been the target of these men since 2017. The FSB agents have always traveled, allegedly with a poison, with Navalny family, even during their vacation.

Mr. Navalny is said to have been poisoned in August with a chemical nerve agent first developed in the Soviet Union that belongs to the Novichok group. The politician had collapsed on a domestic flight. Mr. Navalny is still undergoing a rehabilitation treatment in Germany. He stated, that he would return to Russia after his recovery.



The chemical poison as a weapon against Putin's opponents

Kremlin repeatedly denied involvement in the case and emphasized that all state Novichok stocks had been destroyed, but that the recipe had long been known in the West as well. The investigation suggested that the FSB could order the Military institute to produce such poison to be used as a weapon against Putin's opponents. The case put a considerable strain on relations between Berlin, the European Union, and Moscow.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin had only said on Thursday that he did not see any requirements for an investigation in Russia. Moscow only wants to investigate if there is evidence of a crime. So far, however, they have not been submitted from abroad, Putin said. Even if a person almost died, that doesn't mean that you have to open criminal proceedings in every case, he concluded during the meeting with the pro-Kremlin Human Rights Committee.