Алексей Навальный
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 5 months, 2020–2021
33:21 · 33M views · Dec 21, 2020
Alexei Navalny phones an FSB chemical-weapons specialist, posing as a senior official, and gets him to describe the 2020 Novichok poisoning and its cover-up. The video is in Russian; HN commenters point to English subtitles.
Praised as a remarkable piece of social engineering, spoofed caller ID plus pretexting, that produced direct evidence of the poisoning.
5 comments from Hacker News
Related: the video of Navalny calling one of the FSB agents who poisoned him is definitely the best prank of 2020 [1]. (Video has English subs) Watching Navalny grill Konstantin Kudryavtsev about why they failed to kill Navalny (flight quickly grounded, quick medical aid on the ground) was unreal and the best spy moment of 2020 for me. One thing that's been making a difference is Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation's "Smart Voting" system, which helps people vote out "United Russia" members and bring in opposition or at least non-United-Russia candidates [2]. 1: this video 2: [LINK]
This is a bit off-topic, but Navalny calling his killer and pranking him into telling all kinds of nasty details of Navalny's own killing attempt is mind-bogging [1]. I am sure this is now part of all secrets services of the world 101 trainings. Full audio with English transcript: [2]. There is also a bit of background told by Navalny later on, e.g. the name Maxim Sergeevich Ustinov was not really random. [1] this video [2] [LINK] P.S. fivebooks.com seems to be spamming HN quite regularly.
In case you missed it: Navalny found conclusive evidence of a cover-up for his poisoning [1] [2] [3]. But the best part is how he did it: caller ID spoof + social engineering. IMO exploiting the authoritarian nature/culture was really clever. Every time Kudryavtsev demurs about revealing more details, Navalny (as Ustinov) calls him by his full name. To me, it sounds like he's threatening him or reminding him of their relative position in the hierarchy. Each time, Kudryavtsev continues to spill the beans and give up co-conspirators. [1] [LINK] [2] this video [3] [LINK]
I'm fully aware of Navalny's history, all politicians are flawed in some ways, and Navalny is even moreso. Do you think that assassination is acceptable for that? The evidence for the poisonings is ironclad by any world measures except RT. Remember, this is about the Russian government's abhorrent "evil" behavior. Your whataboutism is a weak defense. I don't know how you can dispute them literally catching the FSB agent admitting it: this video
> And with old-fashioned telephone presumably has had this impostor problem since forever. Nalvany himself impersonated a Russian official via telephone to uncover details of his own assassination attempt: [LINK] And here’s the call itself: this video It’s an incredible story and yes it does still happen.