The U.S. intelligence community has concluded with high confidence that Navalny was poisoned last year with a banned nerve agent called Novichok by the Russian security services, the administration revealed on Tuesday. Navalny received treatment for the poisoning in Germany and was arrested upon his return to Russia in January.
The Kremlin has denied involvement in Navalny’s poisoning, but the State Department publicly attributed the attack to the Russian Federal Security Service in December, and the intelligence community has now assessed with high confidence that the FSB was responsible. Navalny was arrested in Moscow in January and sentenced to nearly three years in prison, sparking massive protests across Russia and condemnation by the international community. He could soon be sent to a penal colony.
