Press Release, based on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty publication, 11.01.2021

Photo: Timur Kuashev. Personal page on Facebook.

Investigative journalist Christo Grozev released the names of the people whom Bellingcat was checking for their possible poisoning of politician Alexei Navalny, as well as their potential involvement in the group of the Federal Security Service (FSB) officers engaged in such poisonings.

The question of whether any other Russian public figures could have become victims of the poisoning arose after Grozev published the data on the recent movements throughout Russia of a group of people who were allegedly involved in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Social media users, in particular, found that the stay of some alleged FSB officers coincided with mysterious deaths of Caucasian activists – Yabloko party member Timur Kuashev and Ruslan Magomedragimov.

Grozev confirmed that there were a number of similar coincidences that Bellingcat was currently investigating. As an example of such a coincidence, he named the death of Timur Kuashev, journalist and Yabloko activist, in Nalchik in 2014. “We have already got a picture that these poisoners had an operation in the North Caucasus, in which they chased [journalists] and, possibly, killed human rights defenders and journalists,” Grozev said.

At the same time, he stressed that he did not want to talk about anyone as a victim of poisoning yet. “I don’t want to give any names yet… Not having 100 per cent proof, I am not ready to say that,” Grozev noted.

In the context of the ongoing investigation, he mentioned two more names of the victims – public figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., who was hospitalised in February 2017, after which he undergoing a long treatment (he himself claims that he was poisoned), and politician Nikita Isayev, who died on the train from Tambov to Moscow in November 2019 (the cause of his death was stated then as a heart attack). “All of these [cases] have certain coincidence which requires additional investigation,” the investigative journalist concluded.

Users of social networks previously drew attention to the fact that one of the FSB officers who subsequently took part in the surveillance of Alexei Navalny had been in Nalchik at the time when Timur Kuashev, journalist, human rights activist and a Yabloko party member, died there. Kuashev, aged 27, was found dead on August 1, 2014. A bruise was found under his left eye, and in the area of ​​the left armpit there was a mark from an injection, which gave grounds to insist on the violent nature of his death. No internal damage was found, and experts suggested that the cause of death was poisoning with an unknown substance. Despite this, acute coronary insufficiency arising against the background of an unknown viral infection was officially indicated as the cause of Kuashev’s death. The parents of the deceased, his friends and colleagues disputed this conclusion and insisted that Kuashev was killed. In 2018, they applied to the European Court of Human Rights.

Based on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty publication