U.S. National Intelligence Report on Political Assassinations by Putin's Regime

The killing of Kremlin opponents, even outside of Russia, is not a new issue. However, for the first time, the U.S. National Intelligence Office has made a report available to the public that addresses the political killings by the Russian government. According to Bloomberg, in 2016, American lawmakers instructed the National Intelligence Office to compile a list of prominent Russian citizens, including politicians, businessmen, and journalists, who are 'suspected to have been killed by Russian intelligence-security agents' and to show 'how political killings have been part of the Russian government's approach since January 1, 2000.' According to the assessments of the National Intelligence Office, the Russian government targets two groups: individuals labeled as terrorists and those who may pose a political threat to Vladimir Putin. Additionally, political leaders opposing the Kremlin in other former Soviet republics, former intelligence agents who have provided confidential information to the West, and leaders of proxy forces who dared to defy Kremlin orders are also at risk. Russian officials do not hide the killing of terrorists under the guise of 'counter-terrorism' but have always denied killing government opponents. The National Intelligence Office estimates that the assassination of prominent Kremlin opponents is likely coordinated with Vladimir Putin, although the authority to kill Chechen opposition leaders is probably delegated to Ramzan Kadyrov, the current president of this autonomous republic of Russia. According to the report, the killings of all these individuals occur through various means, and alongside shootings and poisoning, chemical and biological agents inherited from the Soviet era are used. However, U.S. intelligence officials believe that toxins are being manufactured that are not yet identifiable or attributable to Russia, and it is likely that Moscow also uses these substances for assassinations of government opponents abroad. The report indicates that the first assassination that was 'clearly' ordered by Putin dates back to 2004 in Qatar, where two Russian intelligence agents were convicted of killing Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Yandarbiyev, the former president of Chechnya who advocated for Chechen independence, was accused of collaborating with Al-Qaeda and was eventually placed on the United Nations and U.S. terrorist list at Moscow's urging. He was injured by a bomb explosion in his car in central Doha and died from his injuries. The report states that two years after Yandarbiyev's murder, amendments were made to Russia's anti-terrorism law to 'guarantee the right to kill terrorists outside Russian territory.' In the same year, Vladimir Putin publicly announced that he had instructed Russian security agents to kill those responsible for the deaths of four Russian diplomats in Iraq. According to the report, in that same year, Russian security agents poisoned Alexander Litvinenko in central London with the radioactive isotope polonium. This act was described as 'a clear example of political murder.' According to the report, Litvinenko was not only seen as a traitor by the Kremlin for collaborating with British and Spanish intelligence against Russia, but this former security officer also claimed that Putin was a pedophile and that he ordered residential buildings in Moscow to be blown up to create a pretext for resuming the war in Chechnya. The report adds that British official investigations and findings from U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russian intelligence agents were likely responsible for Litvinenko's murder. The report indicates that the Russian government has also been involved in the murders of other prominent Russian figures, but less information has been obtained in this regard, and Western agencies' confidence in the involvement of Russian security organizations is lower than in the Litvinenko case. In this context, Alexander Perepilichny, a Russian businessman who was supposed to testify about the tax evasion network of Putin's associates, was poisoned shortly before his court appearance with a biological agent. According to the National Intelligence Office, Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with a chemical agent in 2004 before he became the president of Ukraine and barely survived. His supporters believe that Russian security agents were involved in this poisoning. The report also mentions the murder of Alexander Bednov, a former leader of the separatists in eastern Ukraine, who was likely killed on Moscow's orders. However, the report does not mention the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, one of the most prominent opposition figures in Russia, who was shot dead in front of the Kremlin. It also does not mention Mikhail Lesin, who was previously known as the 'tsar of Kremlin media,' who 'died after repeated falls.' Even Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer after whom the law punishing human rights violators was named, and well-known journalists such as Natalia Estemirova, Paul Klebnikov, and Anna Politkovskaya are not mentioned. The list of individuals suspected to have been killed on Kremlin orders is very long, and more names are gradually being added. Recently, it is suspected that Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition, was killed after an assassination attempt with the nerve agent Novichok in a prison in Russia. Additionally, over the eight years since the preparation of this report by the National Intelligence Office, more than ten separatist leaders in Ukraine have been killed under suspicious circumstances, likely on Moscow's orders. The killing of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the 'Wagner' group, in a plane crash is seen by many as Putin's revenge against him after a failed coup. Bloomberg reports that the National Intelligence Office's report on the murders of Kremlin opponents was released after eight years of repeated requests from the news agency for access to this document, but some parts of the report that apparently relate to intelligence methods or third-party governments remain redacted.