WASHINGTON – Russian President Vladimir Putin said he could not guarantee opposition leader Alexei Navalny would leave prison alive and denied ordering an assassination attempt on the anti-corruption crusader.
Putin's remarks, made in an interview with NBC News that aired in part on Monday, mark a fresh provocation from the Russian autocrat as he prepares to sit down with U.S. President Joe Biden for a high-stakes summit this week.
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The two leaders will meet June 16 in Geneva, Switzerland, amid escalating tensions over the Kremlin's cyberattacks and election interference in the U.S. and Putin's efforts to stifle dissent inside Russia.
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Navalny, an activist and one of Putin's fiercest critics, returned to Russia from Germany in January after recovering from poisoning with a nerve agent. He was detained shortly after his arrival in Moscow and sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for violating the terms of his probation while he was treated abroad.
Navalny initially went on a hunger strike, and his allies say he came close to death before ending his strike on the advice of doctors.
Asked if he could guarantee Navanly would leave prison alive, Putin claimed he had no say over the matter.
"Look, such decisions in this country are not made by the president," Putin said.
Pressed on Navalny's status, Putin said: "He will not be treated any worse than anybody else."
Navalny's case is likely to be one of many flashpoints between Biden and Putin during Wednesday's meeting.
The U.S. intelligence community has determined with "high confidence" that Russia's Federal Security Service used the nerve agent Novichok to poison Navalny last August. The Biden administration imposed sanctions on Russia in the wake of that finding.
Putin has denied any involvement in the attack on Navalny, a position he repeated to NBC.
"We don't have this kind of habit of assassinating anybody," Putin said when pressed on Navalny's poisoning.
The U.S. sanctioned seven senior members of the Russian government and added 14 entities to the Department of Commerce's blacklist, mirroring sanctions imposed earlier by the European Union and the United Kingdom for the attempted murder of Navalny. The sanctions prevent the top figures allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin from accessing financial and property assets in the U.S.
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The intelligence community determined with "high confidence" that the Federal Security Service used the nerve agent Novichok to poison Navalny last August, according to officials. Russia has denied accusations that it was behind the attack.
The sanctions are the first ordered by President Joe Biden against Moscow as the administration reassesses relations with Putin and considers punitive action over Navalny's attempted assassination, interference in U.S. 2020 election, the SolarWinds cyber attack and reported bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill coalition troops in Afghanistan.
The Treasury Department sanctioned officials including Alexander Bortnikov, director of Russia's Federal Security Service, first deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of staff Andrei Yarin, deputy defense minister Aleksei Krivoruchko, deputy defense minister Pavel Popov, prosecutor general Igor Krasnov and federal prisons director Alexander Kalashnikov.
The penalties also included an expansion of sanctions under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, new export restrictions on items that could be used for biological agent and chemical production as well as visa restrictions, according to senior administration officials.
The administration also renewed calls for Navalny's immediate release.