VLADIMIR Putin did not directly order the death of his number one enemy Alexei Navalny, US intelligence agencies have said.
Mystery now deepens over the critic’s death inside the brutal Polar Wolf jail as the finding does not clear Vlad of ultimate responsibility.
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Navalny was one of Putin’s greatest enemies and his leading domestic critic in Russia – bravely challenging the tyrant’s brutal war in Ukraine.
His death in February set off further rounds of sanctions on Russia’s economy, upended sensitive prisoner swap talks between Russia and the West, and caused chaos among Russia’s small opposition.
But US intelligence agencies have now said that Putin likely didn’t directly order Navalny to be killed at the Arctic gulag, The Wall Street Journal reports.
While not clearing Putin of not having any involvement, the assessment reportedly concluded that he most likely did not order it at that particular time.
The details of Navalny’s death may never be fully known, according to the people who spoke with The Wall Street Journal, and they declined to say whether the American government has evaluated how he died.
Whether intelligence services had come up with any other theories regarding Navalny’s demise was unknown.
Intelligence assessments are usually built on a mosaic of incomplete informational components, combining secret facts with open-source, or publicly available, data streams.
The CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the intelligence branch of the State Department are some of the agencies sharing the claim the intelligence community, sources “familiar with the matter” told the WSJ.
The viewpoint of the United States has been shared with a few European intelligence services.
And according to security authorities from a number of European cities, some nations are still doubtful that Putin was not directly involved in Navalny’s demise.
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Those European officials said it is unlikely that harm could have come to Navalny without the president’s previous knowledge in a regime as tightly regulated as Vlad’s Russia.
Because he was the final opposition figure in Russia with enough political clout to be considered a viable leader, his killing appeared to be the climax of a long-running Kremlin operation to assassinate or exile any potential rivals to Putin.
The Russian despot stated in March that he had agreed to the notion of an exchange between Navalny and people jailed in the West just days before Navalny’s death.
Vlad stated that the sole condition was that he never return to Russia.
The Kremlin has denied participation in Navalny’s death and previous poisoning.
But insiders claim Navalny was tortured to death by being tied up so tightly it cut off blood to his brain.
A new report alleged that the original autopsy results revealed the jailed opposition leader, 47, had blood clots in the arms and muscles – before Kremlin agents covered it up.
Russian human rights organisation gulagu.net was informed by insiders that Putin’s secret service pushed a forensic specialist who examined Navalny’s damaged corpse to conceal his findings.
Initial Russian reports claimed Navalny died on February 16 of a “detached blood clot” in the hellhole Siberian gulag where he had been jailed in a brutal act of political repression.
However, gulagu.net – which is headed by Russian dissident Vladimir Osechkin – claimed: “The forensic expert was pressured to conceal the discovery of blood clots….in the calf muscles and arms”.
This indicated “the formation of blood clots as a result of disruption of normal blood circulation”.
A source told the organisation that the forensic physician concluded “that four to five hours before the onset of biological death, the prisoner was tied up and his arms and legs”.
Gulag.net previously claimed that evidence suggested Navalny was killed by a “single punch to the heart” after being forced to spend hours in freezing cold.
The barbaric method was once a “hallmark of the KGB”.
Maria Pevchikh – an exiled ally of Navalny – said Navalny was poised to be freed in a prisoner swap – but Putin blocked it at the last minute and had his arch foe killed.
Ina shameless election speech last month, Putin appeared to back the theory that Navalny might have been exchanged but said: “Unfortunately, whatever happened, happened”.
Read more on the Irish Sun
Gulag.net is run by Vladimir Osechkin, who lives in exile in France after fleeing Russia following assassination attempts as he tried to expose the Kremlin’s human rights abuses.
In March, he said he narrowly avoided by assassinated and was moved out of his home after by France cops who were tipped off that a Kremlin execution squad was on their way.
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Life of Alexei Navalny
PUTIN’S best known opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, has died in prison.
Here is a timeline that took the leader of the opposition from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s biggest foe to a hellhole Siberian prison and onto an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he majored in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant over-development in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for calling out corruption in state-run corporation
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia’s election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – Further mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement. He rejects the claims and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor’s race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt he blames on Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president
August, 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma on a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Jan 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
Feb 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison
June 2021 — A Moscow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his extended political network
Feb 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication & suffering from slow poisoning
April, 2023 — Navalny from inside prison says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
Aug 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
Dec 2023 – He disappears from his prison as his team fear he could be assassination. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
February 16, 2024 – Navalny is found dead inside his Arctic gulag with no official cause of death given.
