One of Alexei Navalny’s close allies says the Russian opposition politician was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his death.
Speaking on YouTube, Maria Pevchikh talked about exchanging Mr Navalny and two unnamed US nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian FSB security service hitman in jail in Germany, who was in their final stages at the time of his death.
Mr Navalny, 47, died at an Arctic penal colony on February 16.
The Kremlin has denied Russian state involvement in his death.
“Alexei Navalny could be sitting in this seat right now, right today. That’s not a figure of speech, it (the prisoner swap) could and should have happened,” Ms. Pevchikh said.
“Navalny should have been out in the next few days because we got a decision about his exchange. In early February, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin was offered to exchange the killer, FSB officer Vadim Krasikov, who’s serving time for a murder in Berlin, for two American citizens and Alexei Navalny.”
Krasikov was jailed for life in Germany after being convicted of killing an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in Berlin’s Tiergarten Park in 2019.
Mr Putin signaled in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson this month that he wanted to get Krasikov back.
Ms Pevchikh said she had confirmation that negotiations for the swap were in their final stages on the evening of February 15. Mr Navalny, she alleged, had been killed a day later because Mr Putin could not tolerate the thought of him being free.
Ms Pevchikh, who is based outside Russia, did not immediately disclose sources for some of her assertions or present documentary evidence.
She said businessman Roman Abramovich had been involved in some of the talks as a mediator with Putin. There was no immediate comment from Mr Abramovich.
Ms Pevchikh did not name the two US nationals in contention to be swapped along with Mr Navalny. But the United States has said it is trying to return Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and Paul Whelan, a former US marine.
Russia accuses both men of espionage, something they deny.
Source: ABC
