What if Vladimir Putin was not directly at the origin of the death of Alexeï Navalny, which occurred on February 16? In any case, this is the conclusion of American intelligence agencies, reported by the Wall Street Journal this Saturday April 27. As a reminder, the Kremlin’s number 1 opponent died in his Arctic prison following illness, according to the Russian prison service in the Yamal region.
On the day of his death, American President Joe Biden, like the entire international community, accused the Russian head of state of being primarily responsible for this death. The Kremlin, for its part, denied any involvement – Vladimir Putin describing the disappearance of Alexeï Navalny as “sad”.
This April 27, a completely different hypothesis is emerging “within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the CIA” and other major intelligence players, underlines the American daily, which is based on “sources close to the matter”.
“Naive” reasoning for those close to Navalny
In addition to “classified information”, American intelligence bases its theory on “the analysis of public facts, such as the timing of his death”, which occurred one month before the Russian presidential election, “eclipsing the re-election of Vladimir Putin “, points out the newspaper.
Insufficient evidence according to those close to the opponent, who describe this reasoning as “naive”. “The idea that Putin is not informed and does not approve of Navalny’s murder is ridiculous,” insists Leonid Volkov, a long-time ally of the opponent, interviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
Doubts shared by the director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw, Slawomir Dębsk, according to whom “Navalny was a prisoner of great political value”. And to complete: “Everyone knew that Putin was personally involved in his fate. The chances of an unintentional death are low.”
If the Wall Street Journal acknowledges not knowing whether “intelligence agencies have developed alternative theses”, the newspaper specifies that their theory “does not call into question Putin’s culpability for Navalny’s death, but rather establishes that he probably did not not ordered, at this specific moment”.