Russia continues to take sides: a Hamas delegation visited Moscow
“Those who claim that Putin was unaware of the murder of a villain do not understand anything about how modern Russia is run,” he said. “The idea that Putin will not receive information and will not approve of murdering Navalny is ridiculous.” The director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs also questioned the intelligence assessment. “Navalani was a prisoner of high political value. Everyone knew that Putin was personally responsible for his fate. The chance of accidental death on Putin’s part is low,” he said.
U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to the Wall Street Journal did not elaborate on how the U.S. government came to its conclusions about the exact circumstances of his death (which will never be fully established). But since he was the last opposition figure in Russia, Navalny’s death seemed to mark a killing spree over any alternative. Possible for Putin Since the invasion of Ukraine, a series of additional Russian citizens have died in unusual circumstances on three continents.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the American intelligence agencies, refused to comment on the issue. A representative of the Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. Russia’s prison service claims that on February 16, Navalny fell unconscious after a walk in the prison yard known as the “Polar Wolf”, a prison with some of the harshest conditions in Russia. Most of the prisoners there were convicted of very serious crimes and the average temperature in the area is minus 28 degrees.
Just one week before his death, Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Schulz discussed a possible proposal for a prisoner trade, which might have freed Navalny, along with other Americans held in Russia. Among those held in a Russian prison: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan. Both were described as unlawfully detained by the US government, which said it was working to negotiate their release.
In exchange for their release, the Russians demanded that the U.S. pay Vadim Krasikov, a Russian intelligence operative convicted in Germany of murdering a Georgian dissident. The Anti-Corruption Foundation, founded by Navalny, said he was killed after Putin became aware of the prisoner exchange deal and acted to prevent it. Navalny, 47 at his death and has been in prison since 2021.