Alexei Navalny’s organisation says his death followed prisoner-swap proposal

Alexei Navalny’s allies claim he was set to be freed under a proposal that would also have freed two Americans in Russia, when Vladimir Putin stepped in.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony followed a proposal to trade him and two unnamed American citizens held by Moscow for a Russian hit man imprisoned in Germany, Navalny’s foundation said Monday.

In a video posted on the official YouTube channel of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, Maria Pevchikh, the group’s head of investigations, said Navalny was killed after Russian President Vladimir Putin became aware of the potential swap and acted to prevent it.

Pevchikh said the foundation had been involved in efforts to win Navalny’s freedom but didn’t provide evidence to back her assertions in her seven-minute statement.

Among the US citizens being held in Russia are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan, both of whom have been designated as wrongfully detained by the US government, which has said it is working to negotiate their release.

Pevchikh said Putin couldn’t “tolerate Navalny being free.” Navalny, who died on Feb. 16, was Putin’s most ardent critic and spent years investigating and exposing alleged corruption by the Kremlin elite. He had a large following across Russia.

President Biden has said Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death, but the Kremlin has denied state involvement. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t respond to a request for comment about the Anti-Corruption Foundation statement. Peskov told the Financial Times that he wasn’t aware of any swap agreement.

A White House spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment and a spokesman for the German government declined to comment. Privately, US and German officials said they made no offer to Putin.

The Journal said in a statement: “We know the US Government is taking the efforts to free Evan seriously, and we cannot comment further.”

US journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, stands inside a defendants' cage before a hearing to consider an appeal on his extended pre-trial detention in Moscow. Picture: AFP.

A Whelan family spokesman said he didn’t have enough information to comment on what Navalny’s foundation had said.

In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Putin indicated that he was seeking a swap deal that would allow the repatriation of Vadim Krasikov, an agent of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, who was convicted in 2021 of killing a Chechen dissident in Berlin.

After Carlson asked about the possible return of the Journal’s Gershkovich, who was detained by FSB officers last year, Putin said he would consider a swap for an unnamed “patriot” who had killed “a bandit” in a European capital, a statement widely seen as describing Krasikov.

Gershkovich, who was accredited as a foreign correspondent by Russia’s Foreign Ministry at the time he was detained, has been held for nearly a year on an FSB allegation that he was engaged in espionage — an accusation the Journal, the US government and his family vehemently deny.

Whelan, a corporate security executive from Novi, Mich., has been held in Russia since late 2018 on espionage charges that he, his family and the US government also vehemently deny. He was convicted of the charges in 2020 and sentenced to serve 16 years in a penal colony.

“Putin was clearly told that the only way to get Krasikov is to exchange him for Navalny,” Pevchikh said. She said Putin decided: “Since they are willing to offer Krasikov in principle, then I just need to get rid of the bargaining chip. Then offer someone else when the time comes.” Pevchikh said possible deals were being discussed since last year, and referenced a report in the Journal that said Navalny could be part of hostage-exchange talks with the Kremlin.

Pevchikh said she had information that on Feb. 15, talks were in “their final stage.” The next day, Russia’s prison service said Navalny lost consciousness and later died after he had been let out of his cell in the prison known as Polar Wolf. Authorities later said he had died of natural causes.

On Monday, Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said they were in the process of arranging a public memorial event for the politician. After Navalny’s body was returned to his mother over the weekend, the question remains whether the Kremlin will allow a public outpouring of sentiment over his death.

Navalny’s foundation said the proposal to swap the opposition leader for Krasikov was taken to Putin by Roman Abramovich, a sanctioned Russian oligarch who has acted as a middleman in other prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine.

A representative for Abramovich didn’t respond to a request for comment. US officials expressed optimism about possible deals after Putin spoke in detail for a full minute about Krasikov after Carlson asked him to free Gershkovich.

Weeks earlier, when a New York Times reporter asked Putin about Gershkovich at a news conference, the president sighed audibly and said he was eager to reach a deal for his release.

The Wall St Journal