Alexei Navalny was ‘close to freedom’ in failed prisoner swap deal

Vasily Dubkov, the lawyer acting for Alexei Navalny and his family, has been arrested in Moscow, according to Russian news media.

A lawyer who represented the late opposition politician Alexei Navalny and accompanied Navalny’s mother last week as she appealed to authorities for the return of his body was arrested in Moscow, Russian news media have reported.

The detention of Vasily Dubkov was announced by newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe and news outlet SOTA. The charge is “disrupting public order,” according to sources.

❗️One of late Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny’s lawyers, Vasily Dubkov, was detained in Moscow on Tuesday for “disrupting public order”, sources told Novaya Europe.

Dubkov accompanied Navalny’s mother Lyudmila to the Arctic city of Salekhard after Navalny’s death on… pic.twitter.com/wZe32u4ww4

— Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) February 27, 2024

It comes as claims have surfaced that Navalny was poised to be freed in a prisoner swap – but Russian president Vladimir Putin blocked it at the last minute and had his chief critic killed, it has been claimed.

Former Chelsea football club owner and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich had been involved in the deal, according to a sensational new twist outlined by senior Navalny aide Maria Pevchikh according to The Sun.

Pevchikh claimed that the West was ready to hand over FSB killer Vadim Krasikov, seen by Putin as a patriot, now in a Germany jail after he was convicted of an assassination.

But Putin decided he could not face having his arch-foe Navalny free, even if he was living in exile.

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was allegedly behind a deal to free Alexei Navalny. Picture: AFP

London-based Pevchikh said: “Navalny was supposed to be free in the coming days because we had achieved a decision on his exchange.

“In early February, Putin was offered to swap the FSB killer, Vadim Krasikov, who is serving time for murder in Berlin, for two American citizens, and Alexei Navalny.

“I received confirmation that negotiations were at the final stage on the evening of February 15. On February 16, Alexei was killed.”

She added: “Roman Abramovich was the one who delivered the proposal to swap Navalny to Putin … as an informal negotiator communicating with American and European officials, and at the same time, representing Putin, an unofficial channel of communication with the Kremlin.”

Pevchikh alleges that “Putin was clearly told that the only way to get Krasikov was to exchange him for Navalny”.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has Alexei Navalny killed out of “sheer hatred”, says a source. Picture: AFP

Putin’s sheer hatred for Navalny stopped the deal from happening.

She claims that Putin couldn’t tolerate Navalny being free, and having realised that the West was willing to exchange Krasikov, he got rid of the bargaining chip.

Pevchikh said: “It’s absolutely illogical, absolutely irrational, it’s the behaviour of a mad mafioso.

“The point is that Putin has gone mad with hatred for Navalny. Putin hated him so much.”

“After all, Putin knows for sure that Alexei Navalny could have defeated him, that Alexei Navalny is the future, and he, Putin, is the past.”

She added: “I did ask Roman Abramovich, through mutual acquaintances, how, when, and under what circumstances he did this,[and] what Putin said [regarding an agreement to swap Navalny].

“Unfortunately, Abramovich did not answer these questions, but he did not deny anything either.”

Pevchikh’s allegations join a long list of theories regarding Navalny’s cause of death.

DID NAVALNY DIE OF NATURAL CAUSES?

A Ukrainian spy chief has claimed Alexei Navalny may have died from natural causes, amid claims that the jailed Vladimir Putin critic was murdered by Russian spies.

The head of Ukraine’s formidable GUR military intelligence service Kyrylo Budanov appeared to pour cold water on suggestions that 47-year-old Navalny was murdered in an Arctic Prison colony.

The Kremlin critic died after spending more than three years behind bars, prompting outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and his supporters.

But speaking at the sidelines of a major press conference in Kyiv, to mark two years Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Lt Gen Budanov said Navalny’s cause of death was “more or less confirmed”.

“I may disappoint you, but what we know is that he really died from a blood clot. And this is more or less confirmed,” he said.

“This was not taken from the internet, but, unfortunately, a natural [death].”

Russian authorities are threatening to bury Alexei Navalny on the grounds of the Siberian prison where he died. Picture: Getty Images

Prison authorities had refused to release Navalny’s body for more than a week after he died.

His grieving widow Yulia Navalnaya accused Mr Putin of “torturing him dead”.

“Give us the body of my husband. You tortured him alive, and now you keep torturing him dead. You mock the remains of the dead,” she said.

“No true Christian could ever do what Putin is now doing with the body of Alexei.”

THREAT TO BURY NAVALNY ON PRISON GROUNDS

Russian authorities threatened to bury Navalny on the grounds of the Arctic prison colony where he died unless his family agrees to a closed funeral, the opposition leader’s team said Friday.

Several leading Russian cultural figures and activists have called on authorities to release the body to his mother, who arrived at the prison colony in northern Siberia last Saturday.

“An hour ago, an investigator called Alexei’s mother and gave her an ultimatum,” Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“She has three hours to agree to a secret funeral without a public farewell, or Alexei will be buried in the colony.”

His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, “refused to negotiate … because they have no authority to decide how and where to bury her son”, Yarmysh added.

She has now filed a lawsuit alleging the “desecration” of his body, said Ivan Zhdanov, an exiled ally of the late leader.

The bleak Polar Wolf prison where Alexei Navalny could be buried. Picture: AFP

Navalny’s team have said the Kremlin is “scared” of the opposition leader even after his death.

They believe the authorities do not want a public funeral as it would represent a show of support for Navalny’s movement against Putin.

They previously called Putin a “killer” who was trying to cover his tracks by not allowing independent forensic analysis of Navalny’s body.

After days of being denied access, Navalny’s mother Lyudmila said she had finally been allowed to see her dead son’s body.

But she said the authorities were not willing to give her custody and wanted to bury him secretly.

More than 25 film makers, artists, Nobel prize winners and opponents of Mr Putin have so far called for his body to be released, in videos published by his team on social media.

A protester holds candles and a picture of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, during a demonstration in Paris. Picture: AFP

They include Nobel prize winning editor Dmitry Muratov, protest rock band Pussy Riot member and activist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, writer Victor Shenderovich and movie director Andrey Zvyagintsev.

“It’s awkward to talk about this in a country that considers itself to still be Christian. Just give Lyudmila Ivanovna her son … without any conditions,” Muratov said.

The authorities were trying to keep Navalny in solitary confinement even in death, he added – just as they had done for long stints of his three years in prison.

“Putin was scared of Navalny for many years during his life,” writer and long-time Putin critic Shenderovich said.

“Putin is scared of Navalny after his death – after he killed Navalny he’s still scared of him,” he added.

NAVALNY’S MOTHER BEING ‘BLACKMAILED’

The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny says she has been shown his body in a morgue, but claimed that authorities are “blackmailing” her to hold a “secret” burial.

In a video message, Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, said she was taken to a morgue in Salekhard, the Siberian town near the prison where her son had been held since December. She claimed officials asked her to sign the death certificate and agree to conditions for his burial.

Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of Alexei Navalny, said she had been threatened by Russian authorities. Picture: Supplied

The opposition leader’s former secretary Kira Yamysh said the certificate stated he died of natural causes.

Navalny’s widow, Yulia, alleges he was killed by Russian authorities.

Ms Navalnaya said the law required authorities must hand over her son’s body but that she was being “blackmailed” to agree to a secret burial in return for the release of his body.

“According to the law, they should have given me Alexei’s body right away, but they haven’t done it yet,” she said in a video message posted on Navalny’s YouTube channel.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is led away by police in 2019. Picture: Supplied

“Instead, they blackmail me and set conditions for where, when and how Alexei should be buried,” she said.

“They want to take me to the outskirts of the cemetery to a fresh grave and say: ‘Here lies your son.’

“I’m recording this video because they started threatening me.

“Looking into my eyes they say that if I don’t agree to a secret funeral they will do something with my son’s body,” she said.

Ms Navalnaya claimed authorities told her: “Time is working against you … The corpse is decomposing.”

She claimed in the recording that the Russian Investigative Committee looking into the circumstances of Navalny’s death would like to bury his body “secretly without saying goodbye”.

Ms Navalnaya, who travelled to the northern Russian town when she heard her son had died in penal colony, demanding his body be returned to her.

Yulia Navalnaya, wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has accused Vladimir Putin over her husband’s death. Picture: AFP

There was no immediate response from Russian authorities.

It came as US President Joe Biden met with the late activist’s widow Yulia and daughter Dasha in San Francisco to express his condolences for their “devastating loss”.

“Aleksey’s (sic) legacy of courage will live on in Yulia and Dasha, and the countless people across Russia fighting for democracy and human rights,” Mr Biden said.

He promised them that he would soon announce tough new sanctions against Russia.

President Joe Biden meets with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya. Picture: X/ @POTUS

The president shared his condolences. Picture: X/ @POTUS

An outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the 47-year-old regime critic died on February 16 in a remote penal colony in the Arctic, with prison officials saying he had fallen ill following a “walk”.

His widow Yulia Navalnaya, with whom he has two children, maintains he was assassinated on the orders of Mr Putin and pledged to continue her husband’s work.

She accuses Russian authorities of “hiding” his body to cover up the cause of his death and says they were “lying pathetically” and waiting for “traces of another of Putin’s Novichoks to disappear”.

The Kremlin has denied the allegations, denouncing the west’s reaction to his death “hysterical”.

An investigation into his death is “underway” and the results are not yet known, the Kremlin says.

– with AFP

Originally published as Alexei Navalny was ‘close to freedom’ in failed prisoner swap deal