MOSCOW. Nov 25 (Interfax) - The story created jointly by Bellingcat, The insider and Der Spiegel is an absurd but coordinated smearing action aimed at discrediting Russian security agencies, State Duma security and anti-corruption committee member Andrei Lugovoi said.
"This is an absurd but coordinated action, another bid to compromise the reputation of Russian special services amid the impressive results of their work in fighting international terrorism, particularly in Syria," Lugovoi, whom Britain considers involved in the death of ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in 2006, told Interfax on Sunday.
"Paymasters behind such publications try to stop Russia forging productive relations with European nations," he said.
"In this regard, it is not by accident that we are seeing attempts to spin the spy scandal involving Serbia ahead of the visit to Russia by the president of the country. Earlier, it was Montenegro, now Bulgaria," Lugovoi said.
Media earlier published an investigation report by Bellingcat and The insider in cooperation with Germany's Der Spiegel, which alleged that eight employees of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU (The Main Department of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff) participated in poisoning of Bulgarian entrepreneur Emilian Gebrev, his son, and the director of his firm in April 2015. A Novichok-type nerve agent was found in Gebrev's body, the report said.
The authors published last names of people they believe were involved in the alleged poisoning. The report also contained a theory of how investigators had tracked the people down by their passports.
In October, The New York Times published a report to allege that there is a special unit within the GRU in charge of destabilizing Europe. Gebrev's poisoning was among incidents mentioned in the report.