White House says Kremlin has ‘long history’ of killing its opponents following Prigozhin death

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday declined to say whether the US has officially implicated Russian President Vladimir Putin in the death of late Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin but noted the long list of those perceived as opponents to Mr Putin meeting early demises. But Ms Jean-Pierre did not say whether the US believes Mr Putin was involved in his former ally turned enemy’s death, and said attendance at the funeral was for the Russian leader to speak to. They include opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead outside the Kremlin in 2015; investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot outside her apartment in 2006; Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for US-born British businessman Bill Browder, who was jailed and then beaten to death in 2009 while investigating state corruption; and former FSB whistleblower Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered in London with the radioactive isotope polonium-210 in 2006. Russia adds 19 years to opposition leader Alexei Navalny's sentence Other critics or perceived enemies have survived poisoning attempts: Alexei Navalny, Mr Putin’s leading political opponent, who has been jailed for 19 years on what observers say are trumped up charges; Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British journalist who has been jailed for 25 years; the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko; and ex-GRU double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were poisoned with the nerve agent novichok in Salisbury, England, in 2018.