Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Kremlin critic who survived two suspected poisonings, was likely tailed by the same chemical weapons squad that allegedly poisoned Alexei Navalny, the Bellingcat investigative outlet reported in a joint investigation with The Insider and Der Spiegel.
Bellingcat analyzed travel data which showed that in both cases, in 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza was followed on trips to various cities in Russia by the same members of the FSB operative team Bellingcat says poisoned Navalny and three other opposition figures.
Kara-Murza worked as an aide to Kremlin critic and politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in 2015 on a bridge near Moscow’s Red Square.
Bellingcat said the earliest tailing of Kara-Murza by the FSB’s alleged poisoning unit that its investigation found was just three days before Nemtsov’s assassination.
That same year, Kara-Murza was poisoned for the first time after coming back from a trip to Kazan, during which he was tailed by the FSB squad, according to Bellingcat.
“The same team would continue tailing him until he was poisoned for the second time on Feb. 1, 2017,” the report said.
Two Russian hospital reports and three international examinations have failed to establish what caused Kara-Murza to fall into a coma.
Kara-Murza is now based in Washington DC where he continues his opposition efforts and works with U.S. lobbyists.
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