NAVALNY SAYS HE DUPED FSB AGENT INTO ADMITTING POISONING

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he tricked a security agent into admitting the Federal Security Service (FSB) sought to kill him this summer and placed poison in his underwear, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

In a blog post the Kremlin critic said he phoned a man named Konstantin Kudryavtsev, who he said was a chemical weapons expert with the FSB domestic intelligence agency.

"I called my killer. He confessed everything," Navalny said on Twitter, a claim rejected later Monday by the FSB. Navalny said he disguised his phone number and presented himself as an aide to Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, saying he needed information for an official report on the attempted poisoning.

The opposition leader published an audio recording and a transcript of the phone call and released a video of him conducting the conversation. He said that voice analysis "would demonstrate that it is indeed" Kudryavtsev speaking.

In the audio recording, the voice on the other end of the line initially sounds hesitant and cautious but eventually tells the story and explains why Navalny managed to survive the poison attack. The FSB late Monday described the phone call as a "provocation aimed at discrediting" the agency.

The investigative news site Bellingcat as well as Der Spiegel and Russian website The Insider were given access to Navalny's account and also published reports on Monday.

"I've been covering the FSB for years and never thought that they were great professionals. But Navalny’s prank comes as shock even for me," Russian journalist Irina Borogan wrote on Twitter.

"They are dumb and that makes them even more dangerous," she added.

WEEKLY FEATURE

CHINKEE TAN SEEKS TO CREATE 100 MILLIONAIRES IN 2021