{"id":10792,"date":"2020-09-24T07:25:47","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T14:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10792"},"modified":"2020-09-24T07:28:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T14:28:16","slug":"alexei-navalny-how-his-team-found-novichok-bottle-evidence-in-tomsk-by-andrey-kozenko-bbc-russian-published15-hours-ago-alexei-navalny-pictured-at-a-hospital-in-berlin-22-sept-2020-image-copyright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10792","title":{"rendered":"“Alexei Navalny: How his team found Novichok bottle evidence in Tomsk”, BBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrey Kozenko,\u00a0<\/strong>BBC Russian, 24 September 2020<\/p>\n

Russia’s foremost opposition figure Alexei Navalny is now on the mend. He has left hospital in Berlin after a month of treatment for nerve agent poisoning in Siberia in August.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Alexei<\/span>IMAGE COPYRIGHT<\/span>EPA<\/span><\/div>\n

image caption<\/span>Alexei Navalny shared a picture of himself looking gaunt and thin but standing unaided<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Initially, suspicion focused on the cup of tea he had drunk at Tomsk airport. But it was the swift response of a member of his team that convinced German investigators that the Novichok agent had been administered earlier than that.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As news emerged that he had fallen into a coma, Maria Pevchikh knew she had to act fast. She rushed to the hotel room he had checked out of that morning.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Maria<\/span>IMAGE COPYRIGHT<\/span>IGOR TSVETKOV <\/span><\/div>
image caption<\/span>Maria Pevchikh decided that if the Kremlin critic had been poisoned there had to be traces<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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“It was not a decision we had to think about – it was obvious and it was the only way we could act in that situation,” she told BBC Russian.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Mr Navalny, 44, had been heading back to Moscow, leaving members of his FBK anti-corruption foundation behind in the Tomsk hotel to finish working on a local investigation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Maria Pevchikh runs his team. They have released many detailed reports alleging corruption and abuse of power at various levels of the Russian political and business establishment.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Alexei was a healthy man, we had been with him for the past several days, first in Novosibirsk and then in Tomsk.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Healthy people do not fall into a coma for no reason. We knew something was very wrong. And, of course, this is Russia. To my horror, poisoning here is almost the norm.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If he had been poisoned, she reasoned there would have to be traces.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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How the bottles were found<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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A member of staff went with them to the room once the Navalny team explained what had happened, she said.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Initially, they would not let us in, so we guarded the door to make sure no-one else got in first. We literally placed a chair in front of the door and took turns sitting on it.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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They had not planned what to do but as they entered the room they filmed everything<\/a> as they went, later posting what they saw on Instagram.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“We walked in, we had the sense to bring rubber gloves, thanks to coronavirus we always have them with us now.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"The<\/span>IMAGE COPYRIGHT<\/span>INSTAGRAM\/NAVALNY<\/span><\/div>
image caption<\/span>The bottles were carefully wrapped up in the hotel room by Mr Navalny’s team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Anything the opposition leader might have touched was collected.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“We collected everything he may have touched.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In the video, members of Navalny team can be seen packing various objects, including three plastic water bottles, into blue plastic bags.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The voice of a hotel staff member can be heard: “If you are taking anything, you need police permission for that, I have been told by the (hotel) director.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Navalny staffer replies: “Unfortunately, we cannot fulfil this demand.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"A<\/span>IMAGE COPYRIGHT<\/span>TASS VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/span><\/div>
image caption<\/span>The Navalny team had been staying at this hotel in Tomsk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Maria Pevchikh and her colleagues assumed there was little chance they would find anything useful. As for being able to remove what they had collected, smuggle it out and pass it on for examination, the hope of that was “even more microscopic”.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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How the evidence left Russia<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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There are no direct flights from Tomsk to Omsk. Alexei Navalny’s plane had only landed in Omsk in an emergency.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“We drove to Novosibirsk and flew to Omsk from there,” said Ms Pevchikh.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Everything they had gathered from the room, including the three water bottles, was “strategically placed” in the team’s luggage, to attract as little attention as possible.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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