According to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely did not order the killing of opposition politician Alexei Navalny at an Arctic prison camp in February.
Navalny, a fierce critic of Putin, died at the age of 47, and his allies have accused Putin of having him murdered. The Kremlin has denied any state involvement in Navalny’s death.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Credits: NBC News)
The Journal reported that US intelligence agencies have determined that Putin probably did not order Navalny’s killing, but have not absolved him of responsibility for Navalny’s death.
This is because Navalny had been targeted by Russian authorities for years, jailed on politically motivated charges, and poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020. The Kremlin denies state involvement in the poisoning.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the Journal’s report as “empty speculation” and said it did not deserve attention. The US assessment was based on a range of information, including classified intelligence and an analysis of public facts, such as the timing of Navalny’s death and how it overshadowed Putin’s re-election in March.
Russian President Putin (Credits: Punch Newspapers)
Navalny’s allies have rejected the US findings, with senior aide Leonid Volkov calling them “naive and ridiculous.” The Journal’s report cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.
It said the finding had been “broadly accepted within 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 unit.” However, Reuters could not independently verify the report.
