As stated by the Wall Street Journal, US intelligence believes that Putin most likely did not order the killing of Navalny

The Wall Street Journal said on Saturday that US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin most likely did not order the opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s death at an Arctic detention camp in February.

Upon his passing, Navalny, 47, was Putin’s most vociferous domestic opponent. His supporters, who the government had labeled as radicals, claimed that Putin had killed him and promised to produce evidence to support their claim.

Any state involvement has been refuted by the Kremlin.

Putin referred to Navalny’s passing as “sad” last month and stated that, under the condition that Navalny never return to Russia, he was prepared to throw the politician over to the West in exchange for a prisoner. Allies of Navalny said that such discussions had taken place.

According to anonymous sources familiar with the situation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that US intelligence agencies had come to the conclusion that Putin most likely did not give the order to assassinate Navalny in February.

Although the opposition politician had been targeted by Russian authorities for years, was imprisoned on charges the West claimed were politically motivated, and had been poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020, the report said Washington had not cleared the Russian leader of all responsibility for Navalny’s death.

The 2020 poisoning is not state-sponsored, according to the Kremlin.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, stated on Saturday that he had seen the Journal article and that it was “empty speculation.”

Pressed on the subject, Peskov responded, “I’ve seen the material, I wouldn’t say it’s high-quality material that deserves attention.”

The Journal article, which quoted sources stating that the conclusion had been “widely acknowledged within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department’s intelligence unit,” was not independently corroborated by Reuters.

The journal quoted some of its sources as stating that the US conclusion was based on a variety of evidence, including some classified intelligence and an examination of public facts, including the timing of Navalny’s death and how it overshadowed Putin’s re-election in March.

Senior Navalny aide Leonid Volkov was quoted as saying that the US findings were absurd and foolish.