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U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.
While U.S. officials believe Mr. Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that the authoritarian Russian leader was aware of the timing of Navalny’s death — which came soon before the Russian president’s reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
Soon after Navalny’s death, President Biden said Mr. Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.
At the time, Mr. Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Mr. Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that were widely rejected as politically motivated.
He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.
In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Mr. Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked about the article, dismissed the whole topic, saying Western accounts of Navalny’s fate amounted to “idle speculation.”
“I have seen the article,” Mr. Peskov told reporters at a Moscow briefing. “I wouldn’t describe it as a high-quality article that deserves attention. It’s just idle speculation. It seems the goal was to give the global audience something to read over the weekend.”
Still, the dissident’s death — and the determination of his wife and followers to continue his political and journalistic work — continues to make waves in Moscow.
Sergei Karelin, who has done work for the Associated Press, on Sunday became the second journalist to be arrested over allegations they worked on videos shown on the late dissident’s media network. Konstantin Gabov, who had done work for the Reuters news agency, was detained on Saturday.
“The Associated Press is very concerned by the detention of Russian video journalist Sergei Karelin,” the agency told the Agence France-Presse news service. “We are seeking additional information.”
Mr. Gabov, who reportedly also worked for Russian television channels Moskva 24 and MIR, as well as Belarusian news agency Belsat, will remain in detention ahead of his trial until at least June 27, the court’s press service said on the Telegram messaging app.
Both Mr. Karelin and Mr. Gabov are accused of helping edit videos for the YouTube channel NavalnyLIVE, a platform used by Navalny’s team, the court said. Both men are being charged with “extremism.”
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