Ex-CIA operative reacts to Russian agent revealing opposition activist underwear poisoning

22 December 2020, 18:18 | Updated: 22 December 2020, 18:25

Ex-CIA operative reacts to Russian agent admitting to poisoning opposition leader underwear

By Sam Sholli

This is the moment the ex-CIA Chief of Russia Operations reacted to a Russian opposition activist tricking an FSB agent into revealing details of an attack on him with the Novichok nerve agent.

Steven Hall gave LBC his response to Alexei Navalny duping the agent on the phone by impersonating a security official.

The agent revealed to Mr Navalny, who is still recovering in Berlin, that the Novichok had been placed in a pair of his underpants.

Mr Hall told LBC's Tom Swarbrick: "Navalny has always been very aggressive obviously with his attacks on YouTube and other media inside of Russia against Putin.

"Russia has been interfering in Western democracies for years"

"But this is kind of a new threshold for him to actually spoof a call and call the guys who tried to kill him and then basically get them to admit it. So that's quite something."

During the exchange, Tom also asked Mr Hall about issues such as cyber attacks and disinformation propagated by states.

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