The Insider: The FSB fired a general who oversaw the development of chemical weapons and participated in the poisoning of the opposition

Author:
Oleksiy Yarmolenko
Date:

The Federal Security Bureau (FSB) of Russia dismissed the head of the Scientific and Technical Service Eduard Chernovoltsev for allegedly criticizing the war in Ukraine. He oversaw the Institute of Criminalistics of the FSB (NII-2), which was engaged in the creation of chemical weapons.

The Insider writes about it.

Officially under the authority of Chernovoltsev were 8 Center of the FSB (information protection), the Center of Special Equipment of the FSB and the Directorate of Special Communications of the FSB. As for the Institute of Forensic Science, its employees directly participated in the poisoning of Russian opposition figures, including politicians Oleksiy Navalny and Volodymyr Kara-Murza, as well as writer Dmytro Bykov.

According to the official version, Chernovoltsev was sent to an old-age pension, although employees of this level in the FSB are usually allowed to work until the age of 70.

According to the publicationʼs sources, the Kremlin was unhappy with the leaks of information databases.

"Two years ago, Eduard Volodymyrovych swore to the countryʼs leadership that he would block all channels of leaks. But in our hole system, this is practically impossible," said one source.

At the same time, another employee from the FSB reported that Chernovoltsev, who lived in Kyiv for a long time, "very much regretted the start of the military operation in Ukraine and in the company of his friends said more than once that everything had gone too far."

  • The Insider publication is one of the authors of a number of high-profile investigations. So, for example, in April 2021, they published materials that the operation of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (MDI) of Russia in the Czech Vrbetice in 2014 (in October and December) and the attempts to poison the Bulgarian arms dealer Omelyan Gebrev could be sabotage against Ukraine. In February 2021, The Insider published an investigation that Navalnyʼs FSB poisoners twice tried to kill Russian opposition figure Kara-Murza.
  • In 2020, The Insider found out that a controlled Belarusian party is being created in the Kremlin: it will be against Lukashenko, but for integration with Russia. The publication was also a co-author of a major investigation: the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Oleksiy Navalny in Tomsk in August 2020 was already the second attempt. Two months before that, an attempt was made on him in Kaliningrad and his wife Yuliia Navalna was almost killed in the process. A special unit of the Institute of Criminalistics of the FSB played a key role in the attempt.