The FSB, Russia’s Security Service, claims Christo Grozev, a journalist for Bellingcat who became famous for investigating the poisoning of Alexey Navalny, is working for Ukraine’s intelligence and helps them plot a theft of Russia’s military aircraft, the agency told RIA Novosti.
The FSB believes that Ukraine’s intelligence has tried to recruit several Russian pilots in exchange for “a 2 million dollar reward and the citizenship of a EU country.” Some Su-24, Su-34, and Tu-22MЗ were the aircraft in question. The plot, they claim, was to “poison the navigator of the target jet with clonidine.” Grozev is alleged to be coordinating a courier that would deliver the substance, as well as the $4,000 advance payment, to the pilots in Lipetsk.
The agency also shared a video where, as they claim, “a Ukrainian intelligence officer speaks with a Russian pilot,” as well as the screenshots of a conversation with the alleged “recruiters.”
Christo Grozev has told Radio Free Europe he "did not participate in any intelligence activities." The Bellingcat team, he says, is doing a documentary on how the FSB and Ukraine's intelligence work.
“The jet is our target, and you know that well. We are ready to pay for it. Our parliament’s website says that we pay a million dollars for this sort of thing officially,” a man in the video says. There is no evidence that he works for Ukraine’s intelligence, however.
