US intelligence declassifies data on Putin-ordered assassinations of opponents – Bloomberg

US intelligence has partially declassified a report that describes targeted assassinations of Russian ruler Vladimir Putin's political foes. Source: Bloomberg Details: A report by the US National Intelligence Agency reveals that several assassinations were directly ordered by Putin.

The document was partially declassified following a request from a Bloomberg journalist.

Quote: "First came the shooting of Russian politician and vocal Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov in Moscow. Then Putin's former media czar, Mikhail Lesin, died in Washington, DC. Police said later that he succumbed to blunt force trauma after he fell down numerous times in a hotel room."

Details: The report mentions several high-profile cases:

• Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the former head of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, was assassinated in Qatar in 2004. The murder was carried out by officers from Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), Anatoly Belashkov and Vasily Bogachev. A Qatari court sentenced them to life imprisonment, but they were later extradited to Russia.

  They were expected to serve the remainder of their sentences in Russian prisons, but the Federal Penitentiary Service claimed in 2005 that it did not know their whereabouts.

• In 2006, former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London. UK investigators identified Andrei Lugovoy, an officer of Russia's Federal Protective Service who later became a member of the State Duma, as the direct perpetrator of the murder.
• In 2012, Russian businessman Alexander Perepelichny died in the UK. He was considered one of the key informants in a case involving potential money laundering by Russian officials and died shortly before he was due to testify in court.

  A US intelligence document claims that he was poisoned.

• In 2015, Alexander Bednov, a militant from the Russian-backed "Luhansk People's Republic" terror organisation, was killed. The armoured bus Bednov was travelling in was attacked by armed men.

The US intelligence document suggests that Bednov and several other prominent leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk separatists were killed on the orders of the Kremlin to strengthen Russian control in the region.

The document also notes that Moscow systematically uses intelligence services to eliminate those it considers a threat to its regime. The US intelligence report stated that such killings are likely to continue in the future.

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