Putin denies Russian agents poisoned opposition leader Navalny
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied that Russian intelligence officers were involved in the near-deadly Novichok poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, suggesting with a laugh that they "would have probably finished the job," the New York Times reports.
Why it matters: A bombshell investigation led by open-source research group Bellingcat found that agents of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) with expertise in chemical weapons followed Navalny on more than 30 trips to and from Moscow starting in 2017 before he was poisoned in August.
- An analysis of "voluminous telecom and travel data" by Bellingcat suggests the poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok “was mandated at the highest echelons of the Kremlin."
- Bellingcat's investigation also alleged that Russia is operating a clandestine chemical weapons program operating under the cover of an FSB investigative unit.
What he's saying: Speaking at an annual news conference, Putin insisted that American intelligence was the reason why the poisoning has continued to receive so much attention, and seemed to acknowledge that Navalny was being surveilled, per theTimes.
- "This patient in the Berlin clinic has the support of American intelligence agencies," Putin said without naming Navalny, an anti-corruption activist and one of Russia's prominent Putin critics.
- "The intelligence agencies of course need to keep an eye on him. But that does not mean that he needs to be poisoned — who needs him? If they had really wanted to, they would have probably finished the job," he continued.
- Putin also suggested that Western intelligence agencies were using the poisoning to increase Navalny's popularity.
Flashback: Specialist labs in France and Sweden confirmed in September that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a calling card of the Russian security services. Navalny, who fell into a coma but ultimately recovered in a German hospital, accused Putin in October of orchestrating the poisoning.
- The Kremlin denied this, with Putin even suggesting that Navalny poisoned himself for attention.
- Of note: Novichok is the same agent used in the attempted assassination in 2018 of Sergei Skripal, a Russian former double agent who had relocated to the U.K.
