Media: American intelligence believes that the killing of Alexei Navalny was probably not ordered by Putin

2024-04-27 22:23:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Media: American intelligence believes that the killing of Alexei Navalny was

According to a Wall Street Journal article published on Saturday, US intelligence agencies have concluded that perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin did not order the killing of opposition politician Alexei Navalny in February while he was in an Arctic prison. .

Alexei Navalny, died at the age of 47. He was the country's strongest critic of Vladimir Putin. His allies, described as extremists by the authorities, have accused the Russian president of killing him and have said they will provide evidence to support their claims.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the murder of Alexei Navalny. Last month, Vladimir Putin called the opposition politician's death "sad", adding that he was ready to trade him with the West on the condition that Mr Navalny never return to Russia. Allies of Mr. Navalny have said that talks on the matter were underway.

In its article, the Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed people who were aware of the report by US intelligence agencies, which they said had concluded that Vladimir Putin probably did not order Mr Navalny to be killed.

The paper further wrote that with this conclusion, Washington was not exonerating the Russian leader from overall responsibility for Mr. Navalny's death, given that the opposition politician had been targeted by the Russian authorities for years, imprisoned on charges that the West has described as politically motivated, as well as being poisoned in 2020, with a nerve agent.

The Kremlin denies state involvement in the 2020 poisoning.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday he had read the newspaper article, adding that it contained "empty speculation".

" I don't think it's high-quality material that deserves attention ," he told reporters when asked about the issue.

Reuters news agency said it could not independently verify the newspaper's report, which cited sources as saying the findings were " widely accepted within the U.S. intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency." (CIA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as well as the Intelligence Unit at the Department of State .

The same sources told the newspaper that the US assessment was based on a range of information, some of it classified, as well as an analysis of public facts, including the time of Mr Navalny's death and how the event undermined Mr Putin's re-election in March.

The newspaper also quoted a senior aide to Mr. Navalny, Leonid Volkov, who called the findings of the American intelligence naive and ridiculous./ VOA