One of the men, named by Navalny as an employee of Russia’s FSB security service, spoke to him for 49 minutes and appears to have been part of the clean-up team, he said. Navalny published a recording and transcript of the conversation.
Reuters could not independently verify the fact of the phone call or the identity of Navalny’s interlocutor.
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected any suggestion that Russia tried to kill Navalny. The FSB did not immediately comment.
In the video, Navalny can be heard asking a voice on the phone. “Why did nothing work out?”
“Well, I’ve asked myself this question more than once,” the voice responds.
When asked why Navalny survived, the voice says it was probably because the plane he was on at the time made an unplanned emergency landing and he was treated professionally and quickly by Russian medics.
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“If it had been a bit longer, then it’s possible it would all … have ended differently,” the voice says.
Putin last week dismissed media reports about Navalny’s poisoning, saying they were made up of information provided by US intelligence services and were an attempt to smear Putin himself and make Navalny seem more important than he really was.
