US Agencies Say Putin Didn't Order Navalny's February Death: WSJ [View all]

Source: Bloomberg

April 27, 2024 at 12:30 AM EDT


US intelligence agencies have found that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s death at a prison camp in February, the Wall Street Journal reported.

While the assessment didn’t dispute Putin’s culpability for the death, it found that the timing possibly wasn’t as intended by Putin, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. The finding is 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, according to the report.

The mysterious death of Navalny, an anti-corruption activist and Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, at an Arctic prison in February triggered a fresh round of tensions between Russia and the West at a time relations were fractured by the Ukraine conflict.

The death also sparked the biggest unauthorized protests since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. US President Joe Biden and other leaders have held the Russian leader ultimately at fault based on years of the Kremlin’s targeting of Navalny.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-27/us-agencies-say-putin-didn-t-order-navalny-s-february-death-wsj