After 8-Year FOIA Effort, 2016 Memo Confirms Putin's Ongoing Assassination Campaign Abroad

Nov 22, 2024, 10:16 PM

After nearly eight years of persistent Freedom of Information Act requests by Bloomberg journalist Jason Leopold, the US government has declassified a closely guarded memorandum from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence dated 2016. The memo confirms Russian President Vladimir Putin's decades-long campaign of targeted assassinations against political adversaries abroad and suggests such operations will probably persist. The declassified document outlines Kremlin-ordered killings, including those of Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, ex-Russian spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, and businessman Alexander Perepilichnyy. Perepilichnyy's 2012 death in the UK was previously deemed not suspicious by UK authorities, despite allegations of Kremlin involvement. The release sheds new light on the methods and extent of Russia's extraterritorial assassination operations since 2000.