WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officers have decided that Russian President Vladimir Putin seemingly didn’t order the dying of imprisoned opposition chief Alexei Navalny in February, in accordance with an official acquainted with the willpower.
Whereas U.S. officers consider Putin was finally accountable for the dying of Navalny, who endured brutal circumstances throughout his confinement, the intelligence neighborhood has discovered “no smoking gun” that Putin was conscious of the timing of Navalny’s dying — which got here quickly earlier than the Russian president’s reelection — or immediately ordered it, in accordance with the official.
The official spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate the delicate matter.
Quickly after Navalny’s dying, U.S. President Joe Biden stated Putin was finally accountable however didn’t accuse the Russian president of immediately ordering it.
On the time, Biden stated the U.S. didn’t know precisely what had occurred to Navalny however that “there isn’t any doubt” that his dying “was the consequence of one thing that Putin and his thugs did.”
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a distant penal colony above the Arctic Circle whereas serving a 19-year sentence on extremism costs that he rejected as politically motivated.
He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, the place he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian officers have stated solely that Navalny died of pure causes and have vehemently denied involvement each within the poisoning and in his dying.
In March, a month after Navalny’s dying, Putin received a landslide reelection for a fifth time period, an final result that was by no means unsure.
The Wall Road Journal first reported in regards to the U.S. intelligence willpower.