MOSCOW (RUSSIA) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the joint media commission, which found certain individuals who were ‘state security assassins’ responsible for the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, was a trick to attack the nation’s leaders.
Navalny on Monday said his poisoning case was solved on Monday after the joint probe team said it had found a group of assassins from the Russian FSB security service as his would-be henchmen, who had stalked him for years.
FSB, which looks after domestic security, has not commented on the probe report. The Kremlin had rebuffed allegations that Russia tried to finish off the critic, one of the leading critics of Putin. He collapsed onboard a flight in August and had to be airlifted to Germany for treatment and he still remains there.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said he was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent of the Soviet era in a bid to murder him.
On Thursday, the Russian president rejected that allegation and said Navalny was not important enough to be a target. “If somebody had wanted to poison Navalny, they would have finished the job,” he quipped.
He also blamed Navalny for receiving support from US intelligence services, hinting that Russian secret services would keep an eye on him.
“But that doesn’t mean he needs to be poisoned,” said Putin. “Who needs him?”