US intelligence believe Putin may not have ordered Navalny killed, says WSJ
The assessment was based on a range of information, including classified intelligence and an analysis of public facts.
NEW YORK: US intelligence agencies have determined that Russia’s president Vladimir Putin probably did not order opposition politician Alexei Navalny killed at an Arctic prison camp in February, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
Navalny, 47 when he died, was Putin’s fiercest domestic critic. His allies, branded extremists by the authorities, accused Putin of having him murdered and have said they will provide proof to back their allegation.
The Kremlin has denied any state involvement. Last month, Putin called Navalny’s demise “sad” and said he had been ready to hand the jailed politician over to the West in a prisoner exchange provided Navalny never returned to Russia. Navalny’s allies said such talks had been underway.
The Journal, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, said on Saturday that US intelligence agencies had concluded that Putin probably did not order Navalny to be killed in February.
It said Washington had not absolved the Russian leader of overall responsibility for Navalny’s death however, given the opposition politician had been targeted by Russian authorities for years, jailed on charges the West said were politically motivated, and had been poisoned in 2020 with a nerve agent.
The Kremlin denies state involvement in the 2020 poisoning.
Reuters could not independently verify the Journal report, which cited sources as saying the finding had been “broadly accepted within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department’s intelligence unit.”
The US assessment was based on a range of information, including some classified intelligence, and an analysis of public facts, including the timing of Navalny’s death and how it overshadowed Putin’s re-election in March, the paper cited some of its sources as saying.
It cited Leonid Volkov, a senior Navalny aide, as calling the US findings naive and ridiculous.
A super thug at the top of an authoritarian pyramid like Putin would never need to sully his hand directly ordering Navalny murdered.
ReplyDeleteHe has plenty of minions who know "to carry out the needful".
Just as Nazi apologists still argue until this day that the Allies never managed to find any document showing Hitler's actual signature ordering the Final Solution.
Similarly, a super thug at the top of a demoNcratic pyramid like POTUS would never need to sully his hand directly ordering ANY hated rivalry exterminated.
DeleteHe has plenty of minions who know "to carry out the needful".
No?
Just as Zionist apologists still argue until this day that the marauding Zionist soldiers never performing the Gaza genocides despite the daily on site videos showing them actual signaling the Final Solution!
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