US intelligence agencies concluded that Putin may not have directly ordered Navalny’s death
Floral tributes, portraits of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and messages are seen outside the former Russian Embassy in Tbilisi on March 1, 2024.
Vano Shlamov | AFP | beautiful images
US intelligence agencies concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin may not have directly ordered the attack. murder of Alexei Navalny at a remote detention center in February, according to three sources familiar with the matter. But the exact circumstances of the opposition leader’s death at the Arctic prison remain unclear.
Sources said this assessment does not absolve Putin of ultimate responsibility for Navalny’s fate, only that the Russian president may not have called for his death at the time. By sending Navalny to the notorious high security agency penal colony In a remote town above the Arctic Circle, the Kremlin effectively imposed a death sentence on the opposition leader, sources said.
Sources said the findings reflect a broad consensus among various intelligence agencies.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the intelligence community’s assessment.
After Navalny’s death, President Joe Biden said that although Washington lacked information about the exact details, “there is no doubt that Navalny’s death is the result of what Putin and his thugs did”.
The Russian Federal Prison Service said at the time in a statement that Navalny died after feeling unwell after a walk.
The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
Navalny died at the age of 47 and was serving a total sentence of 30 and a half years in prison. As Russia’s most prominent and prominent dissident, Navalny’s death dealt a heavy blow to the country’s opposition movement, which was already hard hit. brutal repression by the Kremlin.
During a business trip to Russia in 2020, Navalny was poisoned with one military nerve agent, Novichok. Navalny and Western officials blame Putin for the attempt to kill Navalny.
According to Western governments, the poison used on Navalny was similar to the poison the Russian military intelligence service used against retired Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in a 2018 assassination in the United Kingdom.
Russia denies the government was involved in Navalny’s poisoning in 2020 or his death in prison in February.
Before Navalny’s death, there were tentative discussions about a possible prisoner exchange with Russia involving Navalny and Americans detained in Russia, NBC News previously reported.
Navalny’s allies allege that Putin killed the dissident to block a proposed prisoner exchange that would have freed him.
Russia has denied this allegation.
