Alexei Navalny’s team said Monday that an agreement to exchange the opponent was “in progress and in its final phase” with the Russian authorities before his death in prison a little over a week ago.
According to Maria Pevtchikh, a collaborator of Alexei Navalny, he should have been exchanged along with “two American citizens” detained by Moscow for a Russian imprisoned in Germany. “I received confirmation (of the fact) that the negotiations were underway and in their final phase,” she added, assuring that the opponent “should have been released in the days to come”.
An exchange of “Russian spies for political prisoners”
According to Maria Pevtchikh, her team had been “working” for two years to “get” Alexeï Navalny out of prison “at all costs”, on the basis of an exchange of “Russian spies for political prisoners” in Russia. Washington and Berlin were aware, she continued, deploring however that they “did nothing” despite initial “promises”.
After several months without progress, the agreement “was put back on the table in December” 2023, Maria Pevtchikh said in a video. According to her, Vadim Krassikov, sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination in 2019 in a Berlin park of a former Chechen separatist, should be included in this exchange of prisoners. German justice claims that this murder was directly ordered by the Russian authorities, who for their part have always denied any involvement.
In what appears to be a reaction on I think”. Questioned by journalists, the head of German diplomacy Annalena Baerbock also refused to comment on the statements of the opponent’s team.
“A public farewell” desired by his team
Russia is currently detaining several Americans including the journalist from Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich since March 2023 for “espionage” – an accusation that the person concerned, his employer and his family reject -, as well as a former marine, Paul Whelan. Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva is also detained in Russia.
The circumstances of Alexeï Navalny’s death on February 16, which caused great emotion across the world, remain unclear. According to the Russian penitentiary service, he lost his life following a sudden malaise “after a walk”. Several Western countries, including the United States and Germany, have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being responsible.
At present, Alexeï Navalny’s team says it is still looking for “a room for a public farewell (…) at the end of the week” to the former number one opponent in the Kremlin. However, if his funeral were to be public, they risk mobilizing his supporters in large numbers and thus being embarrassing for Vladimir Putin, who is preparing for a new coronation following an unopposed presidential election scheduled to take place from March 15 to 17.
After several days of waiting, his body was handed over to his mother, Alexeï Navalny’s relatives announced on Saturday. Vladimir Putin, for his part, has still not reacted to the death of his main detractor, who narrowly survived in 2020 a poisoning of which he already accused the master of the Kremlin, despite his denials.