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Top Russian Lawmaker Says Vladimir Putin Actually Saved Alexei Navalny’s Life

Navalny has accused the Russian president of ordering the nerve attack against him—but one senior Russian official says there’s been a terrible misunderstanding.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is recovering in Germany after being poisoned in Russia by a nerve agent, has directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering the attack. But, according to one senior Russian lawmaker, there has been a terrible misunderstanding. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower house, audaciously claimed that Putin didn’t try to kill Navalny—and was actually his knight in shining armor. “Putin saved [Navalny’s] life,” Volodin said. “Everyone, from pilots and doctors to the president, were genuinely saving him.” He went on to call Navalny’s finger-pointing at Putin “dishonorable,” and alleged that the poisoning was an incredibly elaborate false flag by Western security services. Later, Putin spokesman Dmitri Peskov claimed the Kremlin had information that Navalny was directly working with the CIA, threatening his planned return to Russia.