US intelligence agencies have reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably did not order opposition politician Alexei Navalny to be killed in an Arctic prison camp in February, the Wall Street Journal reported today, as quoted by Reuters. BTA.
Navalny, 47, was Putin's fiercest critic in Russia. His associates, whom authorities described as extremists, accused Putin of killing him and said they would provide evidence for their claims.
The Kremlin denies involvement in the case. Last month, Putin called Navalny's death “sad” and indicated that he was willing to exchange the convicted politician for a prisoner serving a sentence in the West, on the condition that Navalny never return to Russia. The associates of the late opposition leader admitted that such conversations were held.
„Wall Street Journal“ quoted an unnamed familiar source as saying that US intelligence agencies have concluded that Putin probably did not order Navalny to be killed in February.
He also says that Washington has not absolved the Russian leader of full responsibility for Navalny's death, given that the opposition politician has been targeted by Russian authorities for years, jailed on charges that he says The West is politically motivated, and was poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020.
Kremlin denies involvement in 2020 poisoning
Reuters cannot independently confirm the claims of the “Wall Street Journal”. The newspaper cited sources who said the finding was “widely accepted in the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the State Department's intelligence division.
The US assessment is based on a number of findings – classified intelligence, as well as an analysis of public facts, including the period in which Navalny's death occurred and how it overshadowed Putin's re-election in March, the paper said, citing some of its sources.
The publication quoted Leonid Volkov, a senior Navalny aide, who called the US conclusions naive and ridiculous.