Navalny was on the verge of being freed in a high-stakes deal with Putin when he suddenly died, his staffers claim
- Alexey Navalny, Putin’s political foe, died at an Arctic penal colony on February 16.
- Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his death.
- Navalny ally Maria Pevchikh said Putin had the dissident killed to prevent the swap.
Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s political nemesis, was on the verge of being freed as part of a high-stakes prisoner exchange before his sudden death, according to his staffers.
In a video posted to YouTube titled “Why did Putin kill Navalny now?” journalist and anti-corruption activist Maria Pevchikh alleged that the Russian president had Navalny killed because he didn’t want the exchange to go through.
“Navalny was supposed to be free in the coming days because we had received a decision on his exchange,” Pevchikh said in the video.
“In early February, Putin was offered to swap the FSB killer, Vladim Krasikov, who is serving time for murder in Berlin for two American citizens and Alexey Navalny,” she added.
Pevchikh did not name the two US nationals who were being considered as part of the prisoner swap. However, Reuters noted that the US had been trying to secure the return Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and former US marine Paul Whelan.
Pevchikh, who is the chairwoman of Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which Navalny founded, said that the negotiations for the deal were at “the final stage” the night before his death.
Putin had expressed interest in a prisoner swap in his interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the beginning of February.
In the interview, Putin said he would be open to exchanging Gershkovich — who is being detained in a Moscow prison — for a Russian assassin.
While Putin didn’t directly name anyone, his comments were widely interpreted as being in reference to Krasikov, who was convicted for the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvil, a Georgian military officer of Chechen descent, in 2019.
Navalny died suddenly at an Arctic penal colony on February 16 at the age of 47.
He became unwell after taking a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness, the country’s Federal Prison Service said as his death was announced.
Russian officials have since said he died of “natural causes,” but that hasn’t stopped world leaders, commentators, and Navalny’s family from placing the blame on Putin.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, Navalny’s mother, said in a statement on Friday that she was being blackmailed by Russian authorities, who she said threatened to “do something” to her son’s body unless she agreed to a secret funeral.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson, confirmed on Saturday that his body had been returned to his mother. It is not yet known whether the family will be allowed to pay their respects in a public setting.
“The funeral is still pending. We do not know if the authorities will interfere to carry it out as the family wants and as Alexey deserves. We will inform you as soon as there is news,” she wrote on X.
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This post was originally published on Business Insider
