NEW YORK, April 27. /TASS/. US intelligence agencies have found no evidence of the Russian leadership’s involvement in Alexey Navalny’s death, The Wall Street Journal writes, citing sources.
According to the sources, the US Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Department of State’s intelligence unit have come to the conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin "likely didn’t order Navalny to be killed."
"Some European intelligence agencies have been told of the US view," the newspaper notes.
Earlier, Putin told reporters that shortly before Navalny's death in prison, he had been offered to exchange him "for some people imprisoned in Western countries." According to the Russian president, he agreed without fully hearing what the other person was saying. The only counter-condition Putin said he had put forward was that Navalny should not return to Russia. Meanwhile, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to specify who Navalny could have been exchanged for.
The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service’s branch in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region reported on February 16 that Navalny had died in a penal colony. According to the penitentiary authority, he felt sick after a walk and fainted. Medical workers arrived immediately but their more than 30-minute resuscitation efforts failed.