Kremlin knew every detail of Navalny’s fateful trip

Sources reveal tracking Russian activist’s movements — what he ate and drank, where he stayed and who he met — before he fell ill.

The high level of state surveillance over Alexei Navalny, the Russian activist, has been disclosed as German doctors treat him for suspected poisoning.

Sources in the Kremlin security services described how they tracked his movements, what he ate and drank, where he stayed and whom he met on his trip to Siberia before he fell ill.

The leak to the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper appeared to be an attempt to suggest that the FSB security agency was vigorously investigating why Mr Navalny fell into a coma.

It revealed, however, that the Kremlin critic’s every move was under watch, from his sleeping arrangements to a swim in a river, to his purchases and how sushi was ordered for him.

Mr Navalny, 44, collapsed as he flew back to Moscow from the city of Tomsk on Thursday. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Omsk. He was flown in an air ambulance to Berlin on Saturday after Russian doctors refused for a day to release him.

He is in a coma and is thought to be in a stable but serious condition. His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, 44, and Leonid Volkov, his chief of staff, visited him yesterday (Sunday) but did not comment.

A general view of Charite Hospital where Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is being treated on August 22, 2020 in Berlin, German. Picture: Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Mr Navalny’s allies suspect that a toxin was added to a cup of tea he drank before takeoff at Tomsk airport.

Mr Volkov expressed outrage at the surveillance. “A huge number of plainclothes officers are involved following his transport, his movements, his hotels, his meetings,” he tweeted. “Why? Is Navalny a wanted criminal?”

The daily newspaper said that Mr Navalny met allies due to stand in elections next month in the city of Novosibirsk and took drone footage for an anti-corruption investigation.

He was tailed by plainclothes officers as he drove with his team in a minibus and another vehicle to Tomsk, where he and three colleagues booked seven rooms at a hotel. As a security measure, Mr Navalny was said to have slept in one not registered under his name.

The day before his flight to Moscow, he went to a nearby village to swim with activists in the Tom river. Villagers were questioned and said that he had been cautious, leaving soon after the swim.

Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny walks outside Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1 where the opposition leader was admitted after he fell ill in what his spokeswoman said was a suspected poisoning, in Omsk on August 21, 2020. Picture: AFP

The surveillance officers said that a colleague of Mr Navalny rented a “covert” apartment in Tomsk, where he had some sushi. When he left, supporters used the apartment to edit footage he had taken, showing expensive property owned by corrupt officials.

Officers later traced the purchases made by Mr Navalny and his team to investigate rumours that he was drinking. Receipts supposedly established that they bought only water and fruit juice.

Kira Yarmysh, 30, Mr Navalny’s spokeswoman, said that the surveillance did not surprise her. “What’s amazing is that they were not embarrassed to tell everyone,” she added.

Ilya Yashin, a Moscow municipal councillor, said: “If Navalny was being so closely monitored [by the security service] how did it happen that he’s lying in a coma?”

The Times