President Vladimir Putin said intelligence agents would’ve “finished” the job if they had really wanted opposition leader Alexei Navalny dead.
The Russian strongman ripped reports of poisoning attempts on Navalny on the heels of an investigation that claimed the fierce Putin critic had been trailed and spied on for four years by Russia’s Federal Security Service before the attempt on his life in August.
“What, we don’t know that they are tracking location? Our special services know this perfectly well, the FSB officers and officers of other agencies know it,” Putin said Thursday at a press conference, according to CNN. “They use their phones where they deem necessary not to conceal their location. And if it’s like that — and it is — it means this patient in the Berlin clinic is enjoying the support of the US special services in this.”
He continued, “And if that’s correct, then that’s interesting, then of course [our] special services need to keep an eye on him. But that doesn’t mean he needs to be poisoned, who needs him anyway? If [they] wanted to, they would’ve probably finished it.”
Navalny was sickened on a domestic flight in Russia — possibly by a tainted Negroni at a hotel bar — and spent time in a coma at a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk.
His team at the time accused Russian leaders of refusing to allow his transfer to a German hospital for treatment.
German doctors later found that Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
Putin claimed he “immediately” ordered Navalny’s transfer to Germany, calling the reports “a trick to attack the leaders [in Russia].”
He said the reports of his poisoning were “implanted stories.”
“There is actually nothing surprising about the fact that these implanted stories are taking place,” Putin said. “They have always been and will always be. This kind of informational confrontation is taking place. They were before.”
Navalny, who survived a second poisoning attempt while in a coma, said he believes Putin ordered the hit on him in retaliation for announcing a presidential run in 2018.
The Kremlin has denied the allegations.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov laughed off reports of Navalny’s poisoning, saying they were “funny to read.”
