"Navalny's Poisoners" Linked to Three Mysterious Murders

The Insider published a joint investigation with Bellingcat on the involvement of the team of "Navalny's poisoners" in other similar cases. The investigators indicate that they were able to quite reliably link three murders to the "group of employees of the FSB Research Institute-2".

Nikita Isaev

The leader of the patriotic movement "New Russia" Nikita Isaev died on November 16, 2019, on the Tambov-Moscow train. According to the investigation, the group began monitoring Isaev a year before his death - in the travel databases, there are at least seven matches by city and date of travel, and one of the group was in Tambov before the alleged murder. "The team working on Isaev included two poisoners who are known for the assassination attempt on Navalny - Alexey Alexandrov and Ivan Osipov (both with a medical education)," The Insider writes.

The investigators are at a loss as to the motive: Isaev was loyal to the authorities, and shortly before his trip to Tambov, the head of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, appointed him as an adviser on regional development. The investigators suggest that Isaev was connected to the secret services and that "something in Isaev's actions that could have been interpreted by the secret services as betrayal could have been the reason for the murder."

Ruslan Magomedragimov

Ruslan Magomedragimov, an activist of the regional public movement "Unity" ("Sadval"), was found dead on March 24, 2015 in Kaspiysk (a suburb of Makhachkala). "According to the official version, Ruslan died of suffocation, although no signs of violence were found. The deceased's relatives claimed that two dots similar to traces of injections with a syringe were visible on Magomedragimov's neck," the publication writes.

According to the investigation, Osipov flew to Makhachkala twice before the murder, and Konstantin Kudryavtsev (the same one who told Navalny about the underwear lubricated with Novichok) flew in once. “A few days before the murder, on March 20, 2015, Ivan Osipov flew to Vladikavkaz (4 hours by car from Kaspiysk). Two days after the murder, Osipov returned to Moscow,” the publication writes.

Investigators emphasize that in this case the possibility of a coincidence cannot be completely ruled out, but murder by poisoning with a syringe injection is an extremely uncharacteristic modus operandi “for local security forces and criminal groups.”

Timur Kuashev

Bellingcat collected the most “iron” evidence on the murder of 26-year-old journalist and human rights activist from Nalchik Timur Kuashev on July 31, 2014. He was found dead in the suburbs of Nalchik with abrasions and bruises, and a forensic expert found a trace of a syringe under his arm.

The investigators believe that the motive for the murder was his independent coverage of the trial and verdict in the "case of the fifty-eight" about the militant attack on Nalchik in 2005 (more about this case and trial - here ). Kuashev, for example, wrote that the key connection of the defendants with Al-Qaeda, banned in Russia, was not proven in the case.

According to The Insider and Bellingcat, the murder correlates with the arrival of Kudryavtsev, Osipov and two other members of the group, Denis Machikin and Roman Matyushin, in Vladikavkaz. Everyone except Osipov had return tickets for July 30, Osipov for the 31st. "But apparently something went wrong, and everything was pushed back one day. The kidnapping and murder took place on the 31st, and they all moved their tickets a day later: Machikin and Matyushin eventually flew out on the day of the murder, July 31, and Osipov the next day," the sources write.

An independent investigation revealed that street cameras along Kuashev’s route were disabled on the day of his abduction, and his call and text message history was erased. Moreover, blood samples were sent to Moscow, and their examination was signed by Vasily Kalashnikov, whom Kudryavtsev mentioned in his conversation with Navalny. “Kalashnikov is the only known member of the poisoning group who was in Omsk, and as an expert in gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, he was most likely the one who should have concluded whether Novichok could still be detected in the blood,” The Insider suggests.

Other cases

The investigation does not claim that the group of “Navalny’s poisoners” was involved in the poisoning of Dokku Umarov, the leader of the terrorist organization “Imarat Kavkaz” on September 7, 2013. Two of the group were in the south of Russia at the time, but a coincidence in this case cannot be ruled out.