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Fact check

Is it true: Alexei Navalny novichok poisoning (Aug 2020)?

Confirmed5% confidence

Yes — this is confirmed.

OPCW and independent German, French, and Swedish labs confirmed novichok poisoning. Bellingcat investigation identified an FSB surveillance team that had shadowed Navalny for years. Recorded phone call with FSB officer Kudryavtsev describes underwear contamination method. Russia refused to open a criminal investigation. Navalny died in Arctic penal colony in February 2024.

The claim

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny collapsed on a Tomsk-to-Moscow flight on 20 August 2020 and was evacuated to the Charité hospital in Berlin, where doctors confirmed poisoning by a novichok-cl

Key evidence

OPCW confirmed novichok-class substance

Russia refused to open criminal investigation

Read the full evidence file

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