Putin death squads to target 'UK enemies in killing spree' after Alexei Navalny murder

A string of Vladimir Putin critics could be killed in a murder spree after the death of Alexei Navalny, the ruler’s arch-enemy has said. Bill Browder believes 12 people could be targeted by the despot’s men.

Browder said Putin has a list of targets in the West and warned: “He will embark on a killing spree which will include all enemies in the UK.”

The tycoon activist said he fears Putin will ramp up attacks after his arch opponent Alexei Navalny died last week in jail – in suspicious circumstances.

The multi-millionaire financier warned Putin must be stopped to avoid repeats of the 2018 ­Novichok attack in ­Salisbury that targeted former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

That failed but, The Mirror reports, it left innocent local woman Dawn ­Sturgess, 44, dead after hitmen Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov fled the UK. He claims his friend Navalny’s suspected poisoning has strengthened Putin, who may target politicians here.

Bill Browder says Putin has lost all restraints with the murder of Navalny

The human rights campaigner became the dictator’s number one enemy after fighting against corruption in Russia. He said yesterday: “The murder of Alexei is a game changer for Putin.

“The fact he would kill the most popular and prominent opposition politician in plain sight without fear of repercussion says that people who are opposing Putin in Russia and abroad are in much more serious risk of assassination.

“The killing of Alexei Navalny has shown Putin has lost all restraint and that he will embark on a major ­international killing spree which will include against all his enemies in the UK.

“I believe there are at least a dozen people here at risk and they will focus on ­high-profile ones. Politicians are at risk. I’ve been fighting Putin since the murder of my lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.

“And ever since they’ve been coming after me with death threats, kidnapping threats, interpol interventions, arrest warrants and extradition requests.

“Putin is a murderous ­gangster and he kills people who stand in the way of whatever his objectives are. Unless we wake up, we’re going to find ourselves in World War Three. He’s declared war on us and we haven’t responded.

“We’ve got to get tough and do some dramatic things to show him, ‘That’s some nasty stuff you’re doing, and here’s the real cost of it.’ Russia is now a criminal country run by a criminal organisation.

“I am not exaggerating, these guys who run the country are murderers, thieves, torturers who only care about money and power.” Mr Browder is fighting to free his jailed British-Russian friend, ­journalist and political opposition campaigner Vladimir Kara-Murza.

He is serving a 25-year sentence inside a Russian penal colony and has survived two poisoning bids. Mr Kara-Murza worked ­tirelessly with Mr Browder to promote the Magnitsky Act, named after murdered Sergei.

It helps politicians impose ­sanctions on foreign governments which have broken human rights laws by freezing their assets and banning them from travel and has been adopted by 35 countries.

But Mr Browder claims its efforts are being hampered by the Government’s policy of never negotiating for a hostage release. He said: “I have had a dozen ­meetings with about a dozen foreign ministers of different ­countries about a prisoner swap.

“I got a very positive response from every foreign minister I met. But the only country that doesn’t support this idea is the UK, which has decided to sit this one out because of a policy of never negotiating for hostage releases.

“The UK has strait-jacketed itself and nobody seems to be having the leadership or the guts to step out and change that policy. Every other country does whatever it takes to free their citizens.”

Mr Browder’s Hermitage firm was the largest investor in Russia in the 90s, buying up privatised and corrupt former Soviet Union enterprises and cleaning them up.

The company’s value soared but in 2005 he was barred from the country and his HQ was raided by security forces two years later. He is wanted by the Kremlin on bogus fraud charges for which he was given nine years jail in his absence.

Mr Browder now lives at secret, high-security addresses. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, international sanctions froze £240billion of Moscow’s Central Bank Reserves.

Mr Browder claims Putin’s bombardments have caused at least £1trillion pounds of damage and said the seized cash should go towards reparations.

He added: “One the things being debated is the confiscation of the frozen £240billion that was frozen to pay for the start of rebuilding Ukraine and for defending themselves. Affecting that could be called the beginning of the Navalny Act.”

Navalny, 47, may have been killed with a punch to the heart after being exposed to freezing ­conditions, human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin claimed last night. He said: “It’s an old method of the KGB’s special forces divisions.”

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