Vladimir Putin has dismissed claims of a state assassination campaign against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny as the work of American secret services.Â
Speaking during his annual end of year press conference, the Russian president said Mr Navalny wasnt important enough to be a target for the Kremlin.Â
Instead, he claimed Western security services were more interested in poisoning the Berlin patient. Mr Putin continues to refuse to refer to his most prominent opponent by name. If [we] wanted to poison him, [wed] have finished the job, the Russian leader said. Instead, his wife asked me, and I gave the go-ahead to let him out of the country for treatment.Â
Mr Putin claimed that the joint Bellingcat-The Insider-CNN investigation, published on Monday, was the work of Western intelligence and designed discredit him personally.Â
Inadvertently, however, the Russian leader added credence to the geolocation evidence presented in the report. In his comments, he admitted the Russian security services knew their phone conversations were being tapped.Â
Of course we know that we are being followed. But the fact that the patient is being supported by western secret services is interesting in itself. Who needs him?
