On March 1, 2024, floral tributes and portraits and messages of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were left outside the former Russian Embassy in Tbilisi.
Vano Shlamov | AFP | Getty Images
U.S. intelligence agencies conclude Russian President Vladimir Putin may not have directly ordered Alexey Navalny killed February at a remote penal colony, according to three people familiar with the matter. But the exact circumstances of the opposition leader’s death in an Arctic prison remain unclear.
The assessment does not absolve Putin of ultimate responsibility for Navalny’s fate, just that the Russian president may not have called for his killing at the time, the sources said.Send Navalny to notorious high security location Penal colony Sources say the Kremlin effectively sentenced an opposition leader to death in a remote town above the Arctic Circle.
Sources said the findings reflected broad consensus among different intelligence agencies.
this wall street journal Report first to the intelligence community’s assessment.
After Navalny’s death, President Joe Biden said that while Washington lacked information about the specific circumstances, “there is no question that Navalny’s death was a result of what Putin and his thugs did.”
Russia’s Federal Prison Service said in a statement at the time that Navalny died after feeling ill after a walk.
The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
Navalny was 47 when he died and was serving a 30.5-year sentence. The death of Navalny, Russia’s most high-profile and popular dissident, dealt a heavy blow to the country’s opposition movement. brutal repression by the Kremlin.
During a business trip to Russia in 2020, Navalny Poisoned with a military nerve agent, Novichok. Navalny and Western officials blame the attempt on Navalny’s life on Putin.
According to Western governments, the poison used on Navalny was similar to that used by Russian military intelligence in the 2018 assassination of Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Britain.
Russia denies government involvement in Navalny’s poisoning in 2020 or his prison death in February.
Prior to Navalny’s death, there had been preliminary discussions about a possible prisoner swap with Russia involving Navalny and Americans detained in Russia, according to previous reports by NBC News.
Navalny’s allies claim that Putin killed the dissident to prevent a prisoner exchange plan that would have freed him.
Russia denies the accusation.
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