The Insider has obtained screenshots of the correspondence, previously partially published by RT and the FBK. They confirm that businessman Leonid Nevzlin ordered the attacks on Leonid Volkov, Ivan Zhdanov, and Maxim Mironov's wife Alexandra Petrachkova. The Insider's analysis of this correspondence shows that it is highly likely to be genuine.

Where did Nevzlin's correspondence come from?

This correspondence was received by Andrey Matus, a fraudster from Krasnodar with ties to the FSB. In Russia, Matus was convicted of intentional harm to health and for apartment fraud, and, judging by how he was listed in phone books, he was considered to be working for the FSB. The FSB-linked Telegram channel "VChK-OGPU" specifies: Matus is a "fixer" for the Sixth Service of the FSB (which is responsible for economic crimes), who helped, among other things, solve problems for businessman David Yakobashvili. It is also known that Matus was an informant for the Dossier Center (Mikhail Khodorkovsky's investigative project).

The fact that Matus is related to the Sixth Service is also confirmed by the fact that it was he who handed over to Dossier for publication the FSB "fake news", which reported that the fraudster Jan Marsalek was hiding under the pseudonym Max Mayer, and included photos and videos of Mayer-Marsalek. As The Insider later established, there was another person in these photos and videos, and Marsalek is hiding in Moscow under a completely different name. At the same time, according to The Insider, it is the FSB Sixth Service that supervises Marsalek in Russia (more on this below).

Matus told the FBK that through the head of the Dossier Center, Kristijonas Kucinskas (better known simply as Chris), he met Nevzlin's people, who contacted him some time ago to solve the personal problems of Nevzlin's relatives in Russia (Chris confirms this part of the story). According to Matus, this year Nevzlin approached him directly with an unusual request: to help get rid of evidence. The evidence was the mobile phones of people allegedly hired by Nevzlin, led by Anatoly Blinov. As Matus says, he was told that in the Baltics, Anatoly Blinov handled all the dirty work for Nevzlin and that Nevzlin had instructed him to beat up Volkov for 250 thousand euros, but since the damage was only minor, Nevzlin refused to pay. According to Matus, having received the mobile phone from Blinov (how he got it is not reported), he did not destroy it, but, fearing for his life after the possible destruction of evidence, he first contacted various business competitors of Nevzlin, and then the FBK, asking for 200 thousand euros for information and a guarantee of family protection.

During his communication with the FBK, he sent part of the correspondence (as he claimed) of Nevzlin himself - with him and Blinov. FBK employees not only studied the screenshots, but also met with Matus in Montenegro to listen to an audio recording of a conversation between Nevzlin and him, where they discuss a plan to destroy evidence and traces of their criminal activity (the fragment of Nevzlin’s voice that they recorded during the conversation is indeed very similar to the real one, which, however, does not prove anything in itself).

After the initial communication and the FBK's refusal to pay for the information, Matus, according to him, handed over the correspondence to the FSB - and soon it was published by the RT TV channel. After that, he contacted the FBK again and, without hiding his cooperation with the FSB, gave them a video recording of the chats of three phones that he was supposed to destroy. After analyzing the screenshots, the FBK employees invited Hristo Grozev from The Insider and Mikhail Maglov from "Proekt" to their investigation to independently verify the authenticity of the correspondence. Chris partially confirms Matus' information and claims that "Dossier" worked with him as an informant, but stopped communicating with Matus after it became clear that some of the information he was reporting "doesn't work" and that he himself travels to Russia. According to Chris, they had not communicated since mid-2023, and only in June, someone, without introducing themselves, asked if Dossier wanted to know who was behind the beating of Volkov. The writer told them about Argentina and Vilnius, showed them several screenshots of Nevzlin, but could not answer clarifying questions. Chris replied: "If this is some kind of scam again, then I am not participating in it, and if it is true, go to the police." (Matus describes Chris's reaction in much the same way, without specifying who contacted him.)

Chris claims that he immediately called Khodorkovsky, who agreed that they should immediately contact law enforcement agencies. And Nevzlin, according to him, said that he would do it himself.

What follows from Nevzlin's correspondence

The key participant in the correspondence is Berezovsky's former lawyer, Anatoly Blinov. In 2006, he was sentenced to 6 years in a general regime penal colony in Russia for attempted fraud, then moved to live in Europe.

Judging by the correspondence, Blinov also flies with a fake Latvian passport.

Blinov corresponds in the Signal messenger with several people: with Nevzlin himself (who communicates both from his well-known account and from another account with the nickname Arye Bar Am, which only a small circle of people knows about - The Insider also found an unofficial Twitter account of Nevzlin with the same username). He also communicates with Nevzlin's assistant Roman Zhelyazko (nickname Roger Jolly) and, in fact, with Matus himself. In total, The Insider examined several thousand messages for 2023 and 2024.

Attack on Maxim Mironov's wife

Maxim Mironov is an economist close to Navalny's team, who moved to Argentina. On his Twitter, he often criticizes Nevzlin, calling him a "crook and a thief."

On September 1, 2023, Mironov's wife Alexandra Petrachkova was attacked by an unknown person while she was walking down the street with a baby carriage, hit her in the face and shouted: "Stay away from Russia!".

As The Insider established at the time, the attacker was Polish citizen Grzegorz Daszkowski. The Insider contacted Polish law enforcement, after which Daszkowski was arrested in April 2024.

The correspondence provided by Matus contains a previously unpublished video of the attack on Petratchkova (The Insider is not publishing it for ethical reasons).

Judging by the correspondence, Nevzlin not only ordered the attack, but also meticulously monitored how it was carried out, as well as how information about the attack was disseminated:

In June 2023, during a rally in support of Navalny, an attack took place on FBK director Ivan Zhdanov - and again a video of the attack, filmed in the first person, where the attackers speak to each other in Polish, ended up in the correspondence with Nevzlin.

In Volkov's case, the plan was more sophisticated: not just to beat him "into a wheelchair," but to kidnap him and take him to Russian territory on a "boat." According to Matus, the plan was coordinated with the St. Petersburg branch of the FSB, which was supposed to "accept the package." The attackers have been following Volkov and Pevchikh for a long time, sending photos to the chat (at the same time, they periodically deceive their client: they send a photo of a house that in fact has nothing to do with their victims, then they take photos of "Pevchikh" (in fact, a random girl next to "her car", which Pevchikh never actually had). The kidnapping plan is eventually cancelled and limited to beating.

According to The Insider, the Polish investigators who were working on this case got on the trail of the curator of the attack, a Russian citizen, whose description matched Anatoly Blinov. However, when the investigators tried to interrogate him, he disappeared from the country.

Other targets

Judging by the correspondence, Nevzlin was also pursuing other supporters of Navalny. Among other things, for example, he is reported on the initiation of a criminal case against Vladimir Ashurkov in Latvia (such a case was actually initiated, Ashurkov was already interrogated as witness). And seeing Ashurkov in Israel, Nevzlin was delighted: it would be easier for him to deal with the enemy here.

Among Nevzlin's other targets were entrepreneurs Fridman and Aven, whose companies he hoped to sanction worldwide, as well as Vladimir Gusinsky, whom he hoped to deprive of Spanish citizenship.

Nevzlin's motives

Nevzlin did not hide his hostility towards the FBK, although he always officially stated that he was "not interested in Russian politics." However, most of his tweets are devoted specifically to Russian politics, and in his unofficial Twitter he "calls out" Navalny's supporters for the wrong tone and promises a "symmetrical response."

Many of the public figures interviewed by The Insider reported that they had received threats from Nevzlin in one form or another (directly or from his representatives) - as a rule, this happened in response to criticism of Khodorkovsky or Nevzlin himself. However, none of The Insider's interlocutors took these threats seriously.

Do organizatsii napadeniy Nevzlin vel s FBK neob"yavlennuyu voynu. Finansiruyemyy Nevzlinym Telegram-kanal Sota (ne putat' s izdaniyem SotaVision) postoyanno oblichal komandu Naval'nogo, a korrespondentka Sota Yelena Krushevskaya (takzhe nazyvayushchaya sebya Bella Foks), lichno znakomaya s Nevzlinym, stala avtorom vbrosa, v kotorom proyekt «fabriki el'fov» Free Russia Foundation byl predstavlen kak «botoferma Naval'nogo». (Nevzlin v razgovore s sotrudnikami FBK otritsal svoyu prichastnost' k vbrosu, no izvestno, chto yego sotrudniki khodili po raznym SMI s predlozheniyem eto opublikovat', soglasilos' tol'ko izdaniye Mikhaila Svetova.) V lichnykh razgovorakh Leonid Nevzlin ob"yasnyal svoyu nepriyazn' k komande Naval'nogo tem, chto oni vse, i v osobennosti Mariya Pevchikh, yakoby rabotayut na... Romana Abramovicha (k kotoromu u Nevzlina mnogoletnyaya nepriyazn'). Svyaz' Nevzlina s FSB Kak uzhe otmechalos' vyshe, pervonachal'nyy plan Nevzlina, sudya po perepiske, podrazumeval ne izbiyeniye, a pokhishcheniye Volkova s dostavkoy yego v Rossiyu cherez spetsial'no organizovannyy «koridor» na granitse, no organizovat' yego bylo by problematichno bez koordinatsii s FSB. Teoreticheski takoy «koridor» mog byt' sozdan i cherez obychnykh korrumpirovannykh pogranichnikov (takiye spetsial'no organizovannyye «dyry» v granitse, kotorymi pol'zuyutsya kontrabandisty, — neredkoye yavleniye). Odnako v perepiske yest' i mnogo drugikh ukazaniy na to, chto Nevzlin nakhoditsya v tesnom kontakte s Shestoy sluzhboy. To on peresylayet kakuyu-to informatsiyu so ssylkoy na «rukovoditelya sechinskogo spetsnaza» (tak nazyvayut Shestuyu sluzhbu), to zachem-to dayet adres Shestoy sluzhby. Napomnim, Matus byl «reshaloy» imenno pri Shestoy sluzhbe FSB i pomogal reshat' problemy predprinimatelyu Davidu Yakobashvili, kotoryy dal pokazaniya na sude o tom, chto lichno znakom s sotrudnikom Shestoy sluzhby Stanislavom Petlinskim. Kak raneye uzhe pisal The Insider, Petlinskiy byl kuratorom Marsaleka, i, veroyatneye vsego, imenno on stoyal za popytkoy vbrosit' dezinformatsiyu o Marsaleke dlya tsentra «Dos'ye». Po dannym The Insider, Shestaya sluzhba FSB uzhe imela opyt popytok pokhishcheniya lyudey za rubezhom. Vprochem, iz perepiski ostayetsya neyasnym, byla li predvaritel'naya koordinatsiya napadeniya s FSB, ili zhe pokhititeli nadeyalis', chto posle «dostavleniya posylki na Rodinu» Volkov budet arestovan i bez vsyakoy koordinatsii. Sam Matus rasskazal FBK, chto plan peredachi «posylki» soglasovyvalsya mezhdu gruppoy Nevzlina i peterburgskim otdeleniyem FSB («no do kontsa ne dogovorilis'»). V to zhe vremya mnogiye soobshcheniya ot «Nevzlina» v perepiske ukazyvayut na to, chto predpochtitel'nym variantom dlya nego byla by dostavka Volkova v Rossiyu, a v nekotorykh chatakh on zadayet vopros, ne pomeshayet li invalidnaya kolyaska planam «s posylkoy». Pochemu eta perepiska yedva li mozhet byt' poddel'noy
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Before organizing the attacks, Nevzlin waged an undeclared war with the FBK. The Telegram channel Sota (not to be confused with the SotaVision publication) financed by Nevzlin constantly exposed Navalny's team, and Sota correspondent Elena Krushevskaya (also calling herself Bella Fox), who is personally acquainted with Nevzlin, became the author of a fake news item in which the Free Russia Foundation's "elf factory" project was presented as "Navalny's bot farm." (In a conversation with FBK employees, Nevzlin denied his involvement in the fake news item, but it is known that his employees went to various media outlets with an offer to publish it; only Mikhail Svetov's publication agreed.)

In personal conversations, Leonid Nevzlin explained his hostility toward Navalny's team by the fact that all of them, and especially Maria Pevchikh, allegedly work for... Roman Abramovich (to whom Nevzlin has had a long-standing hostility).

Nevzlin's connection with the FSB

As noted above, Nevzlin's initial plan, judging by the correspondence, was not to beat him up, but to kidnap Volkov and deliver him to Russia through a specially organized "corridor" on the border, but organizing it would have been problematic without coordination with the FSB. Theoretically, such a "corridor" could have been created through ordinary corrupt border guards (such specially organized "holes" in the border, used by smugglers, are not uncommon). However, the correspondence also contains many other indications that Nevzlin is in close contact with the Sixth Service. Sometimes he sends some information with a reference to the "leader of Sechin's special forces" (as the Sixth Service is called), sometimes he gives the address of the Sixth Service for some reason.

Let us recall that Matus was a "fixer" for the Sixth Service of the FSB and helped solve problems for businessman David Yakobashvili, who testified in court that he personally knew Sixth Service employee Stanislav Petlinsky. As The Insider previously wrote, Petlinsky was Marsalek's curator, and most likely, it was he who was behind the attempt to plant disinformation about Marsalek for the Dossier Center.

According to The Insider, the Sixth Service of the FSB already had experience in attempting to kidnap people abroad. However, it remains unclear from the correspondence whether there was preliminary coordination of the attack with the FSB, or whether the kidnappers hoped that after "delivering the package to the Motherland" Volkov would be arrested without any coordination. Matus himself told the FBK that the plan to transfer the "package" was agreed upon between Nevzlin's group and the St. Petersburg branch of the FSB ("but they did not fully agree"). At the same time, many messages from "Nevzlin" in the correspondence indicate that his preferred option would be to deliver Volkov to Russia, and in some chats he asks whether the wheelchair will interfere with the plans "with the parcel."

Why this correspondence is unlikely to be fake

There is no doubt that this correspondence was provided by people connected to the attack, since it contains videos of attacks on Petrachkova and Zhdanov that were not publicly available. But is it really connected to Nevzlin, or did the FSB simply use Nevzlin's feud with the FBK to plant misinformation about his involvement?

An analysis of the correspondence suggests that at least most of the correspondence is genuine, and Nevzlin is indeed behind these attacks, and here's why.

1. The correspondence cites a Signal conversation between Nevzlin and Pevchikh, which could only have been had by someone who has physical access to either Nevzlin's or Pevchikh's gadgets. Even if someone had hacked Nevzlin's or Pevchikh's account, they would not have been able to access the messages - this would require physical access to the gadget.

2. As Vlad Romantsov correctly noted, in all the tweet links that Nevzlin gives in his correspondence, you can notice the parameter t=taRExlwtL5tmHK4OIFQ30g. This is the coded identifier of his device, which is transmitted during sharing. By entering it into a search, you can find one of the tweets from September 11 (this is how the message on the screen is dated). Technically, nothing prevented the FSB from taking this point into account when falsifying the correspondence, but such a level of thoughtfulness raises doubts.

3. Nevzlin's messages not only stylistically and meaningfully coincide with what he writes on his official and especially unofficial Twitter, but also have common characteristic features of writing words. Navalny's team drew attention to some of these features in their analysis: for example, the word "tweet" with two "t's", double emoticons, time separated by a colon - all of this forms a characteristic manner of writing (it is possible to forge it, but it would require additional special efforts).

4. The correspondence contains thousands of messages from four accounts, which should be consistent in meaning and chronology not only with each other, but also with events (many of which are not publicly available - for example, data on the flights of Nevzlin's colleagues, friends or relatives, or information on business conflicts). In order to reliably forge such correspondence, it would be necessary to make a colossal effort. Finally, the correspondence contains many fragmentary phrases that would not be understandable to an outsider without context and an understanding of the "inner workings". In ten years of studying hacked correspondence, The Insider has never encountered an example of someone convincingly forging correspondence of such volume and complexity.

Sometimes attackers insert some phrases into real hacked correspondence in order to compromise their victim. But, firstly, it is problematic to steal correspondence from several gadgets at once (let us recall that correspondence in Signal can only be obtained with physical access to the device), and secondly, in this case, the entire correspondence as a whole has the meaning of negotiations between the customer and the perpetrator of the attacks, and changing several individual messages would not change the essence.

5. If the correspondence was fake, it would inevitably contain some errors that Nevzlin could easily refute and prove his innocence (and there are a huge number of factual details in the correspondence: messages about flights, meetings, photographs of documents). Nevzlin got off with a general statement about his innocence and did not even try to expose the posted screenshots. If the correspondence was authentic, but with inserted "dumps", then Nevzlin would be able to show the original and prove it.

In any case, a significant portion of the details indicated in the correspondence, specifically related to the attacks (including money transfers from Nevzlin to Blinov), is easily verifiable information for law enforcement agencies, and they, according to The Insider, are already conducting their own investigation.

Leonid Nevzlin declined to comment to The Insider.