EPA / GAVRIIL GRIGOROV / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN
Vladimir Putin
US intelligence services believe that Putin did not order the assassination of Alexei Navalny, given that the timing of his death overshadowed his re-election to the Russian Presidency.
US intelligence agencies believe that Vladimir Putin will not have ordered death of his main opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in February in a prison in Russia.
According to the Wall Street Journal, US spies do not completely absolve Putin of responsibility, but they believe that the Russian President did not plan to order Navalny’s death at that precise moment. Among the reasons given for this conclusion are the analysis of public facts, confidential information and the timing of Navalny’s death, which overshadowed Putin’s re-election.
Although this theory is consensual among the CIA and the State Department’s intelligence unit, European espionage services remain skeptical and they find it unlikely that Navalny would have been assassinated without Putin being involved in the decision.
One of the hypotheses pointed out by Navalny’s allies as justification for the time of his death was the discussion that was taking place for a exchange of prisoners in which Putin’s opponent would be involved.
Just a week before his death, Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz discussed a potential prisoner exchange proposal that could have freed Navalny along with other American citizens detained in Russia. In return, the Kremlin wanted Vadim Krasikov, a Russian intelligence agent convicted in Germany of murdering a Georgian dissident. The Anti-Corruption Foundation, created by Navalny, believes that Putin ordered the immediate death of his opponent to prevent their release in this exchange.
Slawomir Dębski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, a think tank close to the Polish presidency, also doubts the conclusions of the US intelligence community. “Navalny was a politically high-value prisoner and everyone knew that Putin was personally invested in his fate. The chances of this type of unintentional death are low”, he considers.
