U.S. has no reason to doubt German view Novichok used against Navalny -source

The United States has no reason to doubt the German government's assessment that a Novichok nerve agent was used to poison Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a U.S. government source familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting and analysis said on Wednesday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the use of the Novichok family of nerve agents, which Britain said was used to poison Russian defector Sergei Skripal in 2018, showed Putin was willing to be "bold" in targetting individuals he finds threatening or irritating, describing this an assertion by the Russian leader that he is the boss and what he says goes.