Putin probably did not give a direct order to kill Navalny - media
Kyiv • UNN
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin did not give a direct order to kill opposition leader Alexei Navalny, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, although Putin's guilt cannot be ruled out given his campaign against Navalny.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin did not give a direct order to kill opposition leader Alexei Navalny. This was reported by the WSJ, citing data from the US intelligence services, UNN reports.
Details
The publication reports that this conclusion is "widely accepted in the intelligence community" and "shared by several agencies," including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department's intelligence division.
The Wall Street Journal writes that this assumption does not deny Putin's culpability in Navalny's death, given the years-long campaign against the politician and the attempt to poison Navalny in August 2020. However, it excludes the possibility that the Russian president could have given a direct order to kill the Russian opposition leader in the colony on February 16.
The publication also adds that the United States informed European intelligence agencies about this, but not all of them agreed with such conclusions. Europe recalled that the damage to Navalny in "such a rigid system as Putin's" could hardly have been done without Putin's knowledge.
According to the WSJ, Navalny's supporters disagreed with this view. The newspaper quotes Leonid Volkov, Navalny's former chief of staff, as saying that those who believe Putin is not involved "clearly don't understand anything about how modern Russia works.
Add
According to the BBC, the Kremlin dismissed the WSJ article that Putin did not give a direct order to kill Navalny in February as empty speculation.
"I have seen this material. I would not say that this is a high quality material that deserves any attention. It's probably some kind of useless reasoning that was thrown up for the world audience to read on Saturday," said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president.
Recall
Alexei Navalny died in the Polar Wolf colony on February 16. The politician was buried at the Borisov Cemetery in Moscow on March 1.
