U.S. Intelligence releases secret document on Putin-sanctioned operations

This is the first time that internal U.S. government documents have confirmed suspicions that Putin is involved in the deaths of high-profile Kremlin critics.

The two-page document, dated July 11, 2016, is titled “Kremlin-Sanctioned Killings Abroad Likely to Continue” and claims that Putin likely authorizes the murders of senior figures abroad. It examines potential political killings since the Russian leader came to power in 2000. Some parts of the report are redacted to protect classified information.

According to intelligence estimates, the first “explicit case” of a killing ordered by Putin abroad occurred in 2004 in Qatar. There, several officers of Russian military intelligence were convicted for the murder of Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, whom the U.S. and the U.N. recognized as a terrorist.

The document also references the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, which “almost certainly was ordered by Moscow.” Intelligence also suggests the Kremlin may have been involved in targeting other high-profile figures for political killings, but there is insufficient direct evidence to confirm this.

The report notes that Putin targets defectors from intelligence services or dissidents, such as businessman Oleksandr Perepelychniy, who was killed in 2012 in the U.K. with a biological toxin shortly before he was scheduled to testify about a Kremlin tax fraud scheme. Journalists had previously reported that Perepelychniy was killed on Putin’s orders, but a British investigation concluded that he died “from natural causes.”

U.S. intelligence officials noted that Russia “has the capability to kill people using chemical and biological agents.”

The report also mentions other individuals Putin likely ordered to be eliminated. Intelligence sources believe the Russian dictator aims to eliminate “recalcitrant separatists” in Ukraine, including the so-called defense minister of the terrorist group “LNR,” Oleksandr Bednov, who led a terrorist unit called Batman and was killed in 2015.

The report also concludes that the Kremlin may target political and opposition leaders in key post-Soviet countries perceived as threats. “A key example is former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who survived a near-fatal poisoning in 2004. His supporters concluded that Russian intelligence added chemical dioxin to his food during his presidential campaign, when he advocated for Ukraine’s integration with the West,” the U.S. intelligence report states.

The document also suggests that Putin likely allowed his Kremlin puppet, Ramzan Kadyrov, to independently kill Chechens abroad.