.png)
4 months ago
2
ARTICLE AD BOX
AN ally of anti-Kremlin campaigner Alexei Navalny fears he is in the firing line of Putin’s cronies after receiving a chilling message.
Igor Sychev, 49, was a proud donor to Russian anti-corruption activist and opposition leader Navalny – who died in an arctic circle prison in February.
Igor Sychev – pictured with his young baby – claims he has already faced assassination attempts
AFP or licensors
Supplied
Igor says he was targeted with this messageIgor fled Moscow in 2016 after hit jobs in the form of three near-fatal crashes where “a wheel flew off and the brakes were turned off”.
He says he is targeted by Putin-linked Russian oligarchs who run PhosAgro – an £8billion chemicals empire Igor used to work for and took legal action against, accusing them of not paying him.
The dad-of-two now lives in Latvia, but says the death threats and frightening messages are constant.
In a recent example, he received a Facebook “poke” from an unknown account.
When he looked at the account, it featured a profile picture of Navalny and a cover photo with the text: “I can’t breathe. I miss you.”
Amid a series of other alleged threats that come via text, email and even his home letterbox, Igor says he’s increasingly fearful of a “more successful” attempt on his life.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: “The threats, they’re like a never-ending stream.
“(The Navalny threat) is just one of the examples.
“If you talk about emails and various messages, they come almost on a daily basis, or at least a few times a week.
“Because I’ve been receiving those threats for many years, I kind of got used to living with them and understanding that I can be killed at any moment.
“It’s probably similar to how soldiers feel on the front-lines knowing they can die at any instance.
“The second aspect is they already attempted it once. Obviously if it can happen again, I’m afraid it will be more successful.”
Igor has hit out at City of London cops after he made reports of a strange encounter with a Brit in the nation’s capital.
In a written statement seen by The Sun, Igor tells cops of how he travelled to London in June to meet with a man who reached out to him on LinkedIn.
The man claimed to be a mediator between Igor and PhosAgro, with the refugee Russian considering their online exchange to be a positive development.
But when he met the man in person, Igor says the focus of the chat became centred on his whereabouts before the meeting and which country he considered safest.
Igor declined to engage, citing security concerns, and the meeting ended bitterly.
Igor then received another LinkedIn message from the man which said: “You have a lot to learn about the brave, foolish and eccentric English, Igor!”
In the message seen by The Sun, it adds: “I will not repeat my last message, I will hope that someday you understand its truth and sincerity.”
The account from which the messages were sent appears to have been deactivated.
Igor accused City of London cops of failing to follow up on promises to investigate this incident along with other threats he says emerged from the capital.
The Sun last year reported that in May 2023, Igor said he received the message he most feared – an email from a man who “stumbled on information and evidence about murder plans against [Igor]”.
The mystery sender wrote: “Igor, I wish to bring your attention to the below: Order to kill you.
“By poison to make it look like suicide, or a freak fall to make it look like an accident.”
Detective Inspector Michael O’Sullivan from City of London Police last year said his unit was looking into allegations of the kill order threat.
He told The Sun “We have had a report of malicious communications. We treat any such allegations seriously.
Know more about disputes involving Russian heavyweights? Get in touch leonard.owen@the-sun.co.uk
“We will not be commenting further at this stage.”
The progress of that probe remains unclear, with Igor saying he hasn’t been updated.
The Sun contacted City of London police for comment.
Igor says he’s also been receiving items in his mailbox – alleging it’s the Russian thugs’ way of showing they know where he lives and can silence him at any moment.
Life of Alexei Navalny
PUTIN'S best known opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, has died in prison.
Here is a timeline that took the leader of the opposition from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s biggest foe to a hellhole Siberian prison and onto an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he majored in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant over-development in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for calling out corruption in state-run corporation
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia’s election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – Further mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement. He rejects the claims and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor’s race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt he blames on Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president
August, 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma on a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Jan 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
Feb 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison
June 2021 — A Moscow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his extended political network
Feb 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication & suffering from slow poisoning
April, 2023 — Navalny from inside prison says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
Aug 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
Dec 2023 – He disappears from his prison as his team fear he could be assassination. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
He said: “It’s just another way to impose fear.
“Those people have imposed surveillance on me, both physical and online.”
PhosAgro has consistently denied it is behind plots to silence Igor, who launched legal action against them in the UK.
The Sun contacted PhosAgro for comment.
PHOSAGRO FIREWORKS
Igor is not the only refugee Russian to be locked in a bitter dispute with PhosAgro.
A showdown between oligarchs exploded in April when Alexander Gorbachev took Andrey Guryev to the High Court of Justice in London – claiming he was owed a 24 per cent stake in the company.
Guryev is a Russian billionaire and former head of the fertiliser business, while co-founder Gorbachev once served as chairman of PhosAgro but fled to the UK to escape fraud charges.
He was granted asylum in 2005 and says he was offered £23million for his share of PhosAgro.
He rejected it and in response was told he had no right to a single penny.
As part of his legal claim, Gorbachev is eyeing one of Guryev’s prized UK assets – a 25-bedroom mansion in Highgate, north London, The Times reported.
Igor believes the imagery from this Facebook friend request was a direct warning
Getty
Supplied
English (US)