In a stunning investigation, Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, who survived poisoning with a deadly nerve agent by operatives of the Russian government, got one of those operatives to describe in a phone call how they tracked and ultimately poisoned him, including the detail that they put the nerve agent in his underpants, CNN reports.

CNN and online investigative operation Bellingcat were able to identify members of the team assigned to assassinate Navalny.  For most, Navalny phoned them directly to try to get them to talk.  In one case, a CNN reporter went to the apartment of Oleg Tayakin, who slammed the door when the reporter asked about Navalny.

But for the last target, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, Navalny and the team masked his identity by spoofing the phone number of the Russian intelligence service, the FSB, and having Navalny pose as a high-ranking official with Russia’s National Security Council.

Navalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk in eastern Russia to Moscow in August 2020.  He was moved from a Russian hospital to a German facility, where he’s recovered from his ordeal.  A political opponent of Putin, Navalny was believed to have been poisoned by Russian government operatives, as had numerous others who fell out of favor with Putin.

Navalny asked detail questions about the operation, getting information about where they placed the poison, what steps the team took to avoid detection, and why the operation ultimately failed to kill the target.

CNN and Bellingcat relied on public records and cell phone data, including pings a cell phone from one of the team registered on a cell tower near Navalny’s hotel the night before his flight

Kudryavtsev told Navalny that the team was instructed to put the Novichok into Navalny’s underpants, where he sweat would help absorb it into his skin.  The team had followed Navalny for years, and put the poison onto the interior of his underpants the day he was scheduled for a cross-country flight.

Navalny asked if there was a specific location the team was told to put the nerve agent.  “The insides, the crotch,” replied Kudryavtsev.

Had the flight gone to its destination instead of diverting to get Navalny to a hospital, Kudryavtsev told the faux FSB official, Navalny would be dead.  “The flight is about three hours, this is a long flight,” Kudryavtsev said. “If you don’t land the plane the effect would’ve been different and the result would’ve been different. So I think the plane played the decisive part.”

Kudryavtsev, who allegedly was a member of the team responsible for cleaning up the scene, including the clothes Navalny wore.  After Navalny was transferred to a German hospital for treatment, investigators in Germany tried to obtain the clothes from Russia, but Russia delayed in sending them.  During that delay, Kudryavtsev and his team were removing evidence from the clothes and the crime scene.

Early speculation held that Navalny was poisoned by something he ate or drank at the airport lounge prior to boarding the flight.  The new insights show that the assassination plot was planned far in advance and with a team of operatives to commit the crime and cover it up.