Alexey Navalny.
AP
Alexey Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his deathNavalny ally Maria Pevchikh said Putin had Navalny killed to prevent the swap.Navalny, Putin’s political foe, died at an Arctic penal colony on February 16.
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?” Russian journalist and anti-corruption activist Maria Pevchikh alleged that Putin 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, who is the chairwoman of Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that the negotiations for the deal were at “the final stage” the night before Navalny’s death.
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.
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 who was convicted for the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvil, a Georgian military officer of Chechen descent, in 2019.
While Putin didn’t directly name anyone, his comments were widely interpreted as being in reference to Krasikov.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.