to his murder, the travel record shows that sukharev tailed nemtsov on 13 round trips across russia. phone and travel records link agent valery sukharev to at least two apparent assassination attempts, both aimed at other prominent creditics of vladimir putin. the most well known is opposition leader alexei navalny, who was posened with the nerve agent novichock in 2020. it isn t clear why boris nemtsov s killers chose bullets instead of poison, or if the two assassination squads are linked. boris nemtsov was the most effective, the most prominent and most powerful political opponent of vladimir putin s regime, full stop, and they could not have silenced him any other way. we put these findings to the russian government and to the fsb. the kremlin denied any involvement and said this story was a fabrication. the fsb did not respond.
but this man wasn t some low ranking recruit on routine business. all the evidence tells us he was an officer with the fsb, russia s main security agency, and that he was deeply connected to a secret fsb assassination squad. according to his documents, his name is valery nikolaevich sukharev. through a series of data leaks we have been able to track sukharev s movements in the months leading up to nemtsov s death, and when we compare them to the known movements of nemtsov, a chilling pattern emerges. in the year running up to his murder, the travel record shows that sukharev tailed nemtsov on 13 round trips across russia. phone and travel records link agent valery sukharev to at least two apparent assassination attempts, both aimed at other prominent creditics of vladimir putin. the most well known is opposition