American intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian president Vladimir Putin he probably did not order the dissident’s murder Alexei Navalnywho died in February in a prison in the Arctic Circle, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Navalny, 47, has been Putin’s most vocal critic. His associates have accused Putin of asking for his assassination and have added that they will present evidence to support their claim.

The Kremlin has denied that Russian authorities had anything to do with the dissident’s death. In March, Putin called Navalny’s death “regrettable” and indicated that Moscow was prepared to hand him over to the West in a prisoner exchange, provided the dissident did not return to Russia.

The Wall Street Journal in its article, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the case, says that US intelligence agencies have concluded that Putin probably did not order Navalny’s murder.

The paper stresses that Washington has not absolved the Russian president of all responsibility for his death, as the dissident had been a target of Russian authorities for years, had been imprisoned for what the West has described as politically motivated offenses and was poisoned in 2020 with a nerve agent. factor.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the 2020 poisoning of Navalny.

The sources cited by the Wall Street Journal said that the conclusion of Putin’s non-involvement in Navalny’s death “is widely accepted by the intelligence community and has been adopted by many agencies — including the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the State Department’s Intelligence Service.”

The US assessment is based on various information, including classified information, and analysis of events, such as the timing of Navalny’s death and how the event overshadowed Putin’s re-election to the Russian presidency in March.

However, according to the newspaper, Leonid Volkovan associate of Navalny, called the American findings naive and ridiculous.