Putin meets with young scientists days before Russian vote

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Thursday with young scientists and entrepreneurs, promising to encourage new talent three days before the presidential vote he is certain to win.

Putin told the youth forum that "the country wants each of you to make it, and your personal success stories will make Russia successful."

"Shall we ensure the country's future together?" he said, drawing shouts of "Yes!" and applause.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at a youth forum "Russia, Land of Opportunity" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool)

Putin is certain to win a sweeping victory in Sunday's vote, securing another six-year term after 18 years in power, in part on his argument that he must stand up to Western aggressors.

Presidential opposition candidate and former TV star Ksenia Sobchak also held a big rally Thursday, declaring her intention to create a new liberal party. She said she would pool efforts with Dmitry Gudkov, a former lawmaker and Kremlin critic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at a youth forum "Russia, Land of Opportunity" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool)

Sobchak broke down in tears at Russia's televised presidential debate Wednesday night, where she was the only candidate to criticize Putin and was frequently interrupted by others.

Sobchak has posed as a defender of liberal values and denounced Putin's policies, but many observers believe the Kremlin has given its tacit blessing for her to join the contest hoping that she would add an element of competition to the otherwise lackluster race.

A Russian election monitoring group said Thursday that authorities forced the closure of a center created to collect complaints of violations in the presidential vote.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at a youth forum "Russia, Land of Opportunity" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool)

Roman Udot of the group Golos said in a statement Thursday that it signed a deal and paid for an election call center but the landlords rescinded the deal under pressure from government officials.

The head of Russia's electoral commission said she hopes that Golos finds a new site. Ella Pamfilova was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying, "It is in our interest that everything works."

Election commission representatives met Thursday with lawyers for opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose supporters are seeking to observe the voting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to attend a youth forum "Russia, Land of Opportunity" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool)

Navalny has been barred from the election because of a criminal conviction widely seen as politically motivated, and he has urged Russians to boycott the presidential vote.

Meanwhile, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that a mushrooming diplomatic scandal over the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain won't disrupt Russia's presidential vote.

Peskov said the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia "doesn't affect" the campaign for Sunday's election, which he called Russia's top priority. Peskov and other Russian officials have strongly denied Moscow's responsibility in the March 4 attack in Salisbury that has left both Skripals in critical condition.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a youth forum "Russia, Land of Opportunity" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool)

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at a youth forum "Russia, Land of Opportunity" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at a youth forum "Russia, Land of Opportunity" in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.

While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.

At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated.

He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.

In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.

The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.

FILE - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking during his interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 18, 2017. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, in February of 2024. An official says the U.S. intelligence community has found "no smoking gun" that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death or directly ordered it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)