WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. intelligence officials say they have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely did not order the killing of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February. This was revealed by an official familiar with the matter.
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 the Russian president’s death). Officials said he directly ordered his re-election or re-election.
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.”
Russia announces that Alexei Navalny died of ‘sudden death syndrome’ and his body was kept away from his family.https://t.co/rVCqOpjSIr
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 19, 2024
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 strongly denied involvement in both the poisoning and the death, saying only that Navalny died of natural causes.
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.
