WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely did not order the killing of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, a person familiar with the determination said. revealed.
U.S. officials believe that Putin was ultimately responsible for Navalny’s death and that he endured brutal conditions in captivity, but intelligence agencies believe that Putin was ultimately responsible for Navalny’s death. They found “conclusive evidence” that he knew the timing of the Russian president’s death, which was just before his death. Officials say he directly ordered his re-election or re-election.
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The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.
Immediately after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible, but stopped short of accusing the Russian president of directly ordering it.
At the time, Biden said that while the United States did not know exactly what happened to Navalny, there was “no doubt” that his death was “the result of something by Mr. Putin and his thugs.” There is no such thing.”
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and President Vladimir Putin’s most persistent enemy, was sentenced in February to a 19-year sentence on extremism charges he rejected as politically motivated. He died on the 16th in a remote penal colony high above the Arctic Circle.
He had been in prison since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and strongly deny involvement in both the poisoning and the death.
In March, a month after Mr. Navalny’s death, Mr. Putin won a fifth term in a landslide, leaving no doubt about the outcome.
of wall street journal We were first to report on the U.S. intelligence community’s decision.
