AN ally of anti-Kremlin activist Alexei Navalny fears he may be in the line of fire from Putin’s cronies after receiving a chilling message.
Igor Sychev, 49, was a proud donor to Russian anti-corruption campaigner and opposition leader Navalny – who died in an Arctic Circle prison in February.
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Igor fled Moscow in 2016 after being hit on jobs in the form of three near-fatal accidents in which “a wheel flew off and the brakes were turned off.”
He says he is targeted by Putin-linked Russian oligarchs who run PhosAgro – an £8 billion chemical empire that Igor used to work for and took legal action against, accusing them of not paying him.
The father of two now lives in Latvia, but says death threats and scary messages are constant.
In one recent example, he received a “poke” on Facebook from an unknown account.
When he looked at the account, it featured a profile photo of Navalny and a cover photo with the text: “I can’t breathe. I am feeling homesick”.
Amid a series of other alleged threats that arrive via text message, email and even through his home mailbox, Igor says he increasingly fears a “more successful” attempt on his life.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: “The threats are like an endless stream.
“(The Navalny threat) is just one example.
“If you talk about emails and various messages, they arrive almost daily, or at least a few times a week.
“As I have received these threats for many years, I have kind of gotten used to living with them and understanding that I can be killed at any moment.
“It’s probably similar to how soldiers feel on the front lines knowing they could die at any moment.
“The second aspect is that they have already tried this once. Obviously, if this happens again, I fear it will be more successful.”
Igor attacked London police officers after reporting a strange encounter with a British man in the country’s capital.
In a written statement seen by The Sun, Igor tells police how he traveled to London in June to meet a man who had looked him up on LinkedIn.
The man claimed to be a mediator between Igor and PhosAgro, with the Russian refugee calling the online exchange a positive development.
But when he met the man in person, Igor says the focus of the chat became his whereabouts before the meeting and which country he considered safer.
Igor refused to participate, citing security concerns, and the meeting ended acrimoniously.
Igor then received another message from the man on LinkedIn that said: “You have a lot to learn about the brave, foolish and eccentric English, Igor!”
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In the message seen by The Sun, he adds: “I will not repeat my last message, I hope that someday you will understand its truth and sincerity.”
The account from which the messages were sent appears to have been deactivated.
Igor accused City of London police officers of failing to keep promises to investigate this incident, along with other threats he says have emerged from the capital.
The Sun reported last year that in May 2023, Igor said he received the message he feared most – an email from a man who “stumbled across information and evidence about assassination plots against [Igor]”.
The mysterious sender wrote: “Igor, I wish to draw your attention to the following: Order to kill you.
“By poison to make it look like suicide, or by a freak fall to make it look like an accident.”
Detective Inspector Michael O’Sullivan, of the City of London Police, said last year that his unit was investigating allegations of a threat to kill.
He told The Sun: “We have received a report of malicious communications. We treat these allegations seriously.
Find out more about disputes involving Russian heavyweights? Get in touch leonard.owen@the-sun.co.uk
“We will not comment further at this stage.”
The progress of that investigation remains unclear, with Igor saying it has not been updated.
The Sun has contacted City of London Police for comment.
Igor says he has also been receiving items in his mailbox – claiming it is the Russian thugs’ way of showing they know where he lives and can silence him at any time.
Life of Alexei Navalny
PUTIN’s best-known opponent, Alexei Navalny, 47, died in prison.
Here is a timeline that took the opposition leader from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s greatest enemy to a hellish prison in Siberia and an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny was born in the western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he graduated in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant overdevelopment in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for denouncing corruption in state-owned companies
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests triggered by reports of widespread fraud in Russian elections and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – More mass protests break out and Navalny accuses the Kremlin’s main cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee accuses Navalny of embezzlement. He rejects the allegations and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July, 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaigning
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in mayoral race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 – Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in the 2018 Russian presidential elections
February 2017 — Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt that he blames on the Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Election Commission bans him from running for president
August 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma during a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
January 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon returning to Russia
February 2021 – A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 and a half years in prison
June 2021 — A Moscow court closes Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and his extensive political network
February 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine years for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 – More than 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, calling for an end to what they call Navalny’s abuse, following reports that he was denied basic medication and suffering from slow poisoning
April 2023 – Navalny, from prison, says he faced new charges of extremism and terrorism that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
August 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
December 2023 – He disappears from his prison because his team fears he could be murder. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
He said: “It’s just another way of imposing fear.
“These people imposed surveillance on me, both physically and online.”
PhosAgro has consistently denied that it is behind plots to silence Igor, who has launched legal action against them in the UK.
The Sun has contacted PhosAgro for comment.
FOSAGRO FIREWORKS
Igor is not the only Russian refugee involved in a bitter dispute with PhosAgro.
A clash between oligarchs erupted in April when Alexander Gorbachev took Andrey Guryev to London’s High Court – claiming he was owed a 24% stake in the company.
Guryev is a Russian billionaire and former head of the fertilizer business, while co-founder Gorbachev once served as chairman of PhosAgro but fled to the UK to escape fraud charges.
He was granted asylum in 2005 and says he was offered £23 million for his share in PhosAgro.
He rejected it, and in response was told that he was not entitled to a single penny.
As part of his legal claim, Gorbachev has his eye on one of Guryev’s most valuable UK assets – a 25-bedroom mansion in Highgate, north London, The Times reported.
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