Putin Likely Didn't Order Death Of Russian Opposition Leader Navalny, US Official Says

US intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with th🥂e de🌼termination.

While US officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was𝓀 aware of the t🌠iming of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's re-election — or directly ordered it, according to the official.

The official spok🔯e on the condition of anonymity🧸 to discuss the sensitive matter.

Soon after the Navalny's death, US President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of di🔴rectly ordering it.

At the time, Biden said the US did not know exactl🎐y what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Navalny, 47, Russia's best-known opposition politician and Putin's most persistenꦓt foe, died 𝄹Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated

He had been behind bars si🌺nce January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering fr💎om nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

Russian officials🌞 ha𓆉ve said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.

In March, a month after Navalny's death, Putin won a landslide re-election 🔯for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.

The Wall Street Journal first reported about the💃 US intelligence determination.