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Navalny Call With Suspected Agent a 'Provocation': FSB

Navalny said he tricked one of the FSB officers linked to his poisoning into outlining the details of the operation in a phone call. Sergei Fadeichev / TASS

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) on Monday said Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's phone call with a suspected FSB agent discussing his poisoning was a "provocation" carried out with help from foreign security services.

In a statement to Russian news agencies, the FSB described the call "about the alleged actions against" Navalny as a "planned provocation aimed at discrediting the FSB," adding that the phone conversation would not have been possible without the "support of foreign special services."

It added that a video of Navalny conducting the conversation was "fake."

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