The Barents Observer called Nikolai Patrushev and asked him about Navalny. "He sounded a bit anxious," journalist Olesia Krivtsova says

Journalist Olesia Krivtsova managed to find the telephone number of Nikolai Patrushev and gave him a call on Saturday morning. The powerful security hawk that plays a key role in Putin’s Russia picked up the phone and engaged in a more than one minute conversation.

The Barents Observer publishes the talk between the journalist and the Kremlin hardliner. Olesia has written her own article about the conversation in the Russian version of the Barents Observer. 

Patrushev: Hello

Krivtsova: Nikolai Platnovich?

Patrushev: Yes

Krivtsova: Good day. This is Olesia Krivtsova, journalist at the Barents Observer, calling. Could you please comment on the situation that they do not release the body of Navalny to his mother?

Patrushev: No, I can not comment on that. Why would you need such a comment?

Krivtsova: Well – I am a journalist, I look for comments.

Patrushev: You have to address the ones that are engaged in all of those issues. You have to ask the ones that are involved.

Krivtsova: Well – they accuse the Russian FSB and therefore I called.

Patrushev: As you know, I do not work with the FSB at the moment and the accusations are completely irresponsible and the ones that have an interest in the life of Navalny are actually in America. So please address your attention and investigations there and you will get to know what happened. Thank you.

Krivtsova: Good bye.

The phone call from the small Norwegian newspaper appears to have caught Patrushev off-balance. According to Krivtsova, Patrushev “sounded a bit anxious.”

“Probably, journalists do not call him very often,” she says.

The journalist is confident that Patrushev has a hand in the killing of Aleksei Navalny and the refusal to release the body to his mother.

“I called Patrushev, as I am sure that he is involved in everything that happened to Navalny, including his death.  I asked a question about Navalny’s body, which is not being given to his mother, however, he responded in a methodical manner: America is to blame for everything.  However, he did not specify how the Americans managed to get into the colony,” she explains.

Aleksei Navalny was killed in prison colony Number 3 in Kharp, Arctic Russia. His death was confirmed by Russian prison authorities on the 16th of February. The Kremlin appears terrified about the prospects of popular unrest in connection with a funeral in central parts of the country, and refuses to release his body to his mother.

Nikolai Patrushev served as Director of the Federal Security Service in the period 1999-2008. He is today Secretary of the Russian Security Council. He is believed to be one of the architects and implementers of the repressive and increasingly totalitarian Russian regime.

Olesia Krivtsova is herself a victim of the repressive policies of Patrushev and his accomplices. When studying at the University of Arkhangelsk in northern Russia, the student was detained and arrested for her activism against Putin’s regime and its war in Ukraine. She was put in house arrest and faced a prison term of up to ten years. She managed to escape to Lithuania and has since August 2023 worked as journalist at the Barents Observer.