{"id":16136,"date":"2024-02-27T12:46:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T12:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/27\/navalny-was-possibly-days-away-from-release-in-a-prisoner-swap-before-his-death-aide-says\/"},"modified":"2024-02-27T12:46:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T12:46:32","slug":"navalny-was-possibly-days-away-from-release-in-a-prisoner-swap-before-his-death-aide-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/27\/navalny-was-possibly-days-away-from-release-in-a-prisoner-swap-before-his-death-aide-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Navalny was\u00a0possibly\u00a0\u2018days\u2019 away from release in a prisoner swap before his death, aide says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Negotiations to release Russia\u2019s opposition leader\u00a0Alexey Navalny\u00a0in a prisoner swap had reached their \u201cfinal stage\u201d just before his sudden death, a top aide to Navalny has said. <\/p>\n

Navalny and two US citizens were on the verge of being exchanged for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination of a former Chechen fighter in Berlin, according to Maria Pevchikh, a top aide to Navalny, speaking in a\u00a0video\u00a0published Monday on his YouTube channel. <\/p>\n

\u201cNavalny was supposed to be free in the coming days because we had achieved a decision on his exchange,\u201d Pevchikh said. \u201cI received confirmation that negotiations were at the final stage on the evening of February 15.\u201d Navalny was reported dead in an Arctic prison on February 16. <\/p>\n

The State Department would not comment on reports of a potential prisoner swap, and spokesperson Matthew Miller would not say whether such a deal would have included\u00a0the two Americans designated as wrongly detained in Russia: Wall Street Journal reporter\u00a0Evan Gershkovich\u00a0and former US\u00a0Marine\u00a0Paul Whelan. <\/p>\n

Putin had recently\u00a0signaled his interest\u00a0in a prisoner exchange with the West involving Krasikov\u00a0and Gershkovich. He told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson \u201can agreement can be reached\u201d to release a man whom he said \u201celiminated a bandit in one of the European capitals\u201d motivated by \u201cpatriotic reasons.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pevchikh\u00a0stated\u00a0that Putin \u201ccould have gotten\u201d Krasikov \u201cif he gave up Navalny,\u201d but alleged that, because Putin could not tolerate the thought of Navalny being free, he instead decided to \u201cget rid of the bargaining chip.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Kremlin has denied any role in Navalny\u2019s death. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely illogical, absolutely irrational, it\u2019s the behavior of the mad mafioso. But the point is that Putin has gone mad with hatred for Navalny. Putin hates him so much that he acts to his own detriment and against his own rational interests,\u201d Pevchikh said. <\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s prison service claims\u00a0Navalny \u201cfelt unwell after a walk\u201d and \u201calmost immediately\u201d lost consciousness while detained in the \u201cPolar Wolf\u201d penal colony in Siberia. It said it was investigating his \u201csudden death.\u201d <\/p>\n

Navalny\u2019s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, said last week she had signed his medical death certificate,\u00a0which said he died of natural causes. <\/p>\n

Pevchikh said Navalny\u2019s team had been working on the deal since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began two years ago, and accused Western officials of failing to show enough desire or political will to secure his exchange. <\/p>\n

\u201cOfficials, American and German, nodded understandingly, talked about how important it was to help Navalny and political prisoners, shook hands, promised, and did nothing,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

She said Navalny\u2019s team took desperate measures to free him, even contacting former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, whom Pevchikh described as a friend of Putin.\u00a0Kissinger has since died. <\/p>\n

Navalny joined a\u00a0long list of Russian dissidents\u00a0who died after challenging Putin\u2019s legitimacy. His death comes shortly before Russia\u2019s presidential election scheduled for March\u00a015-17, which is widely seen by the international community as little more than a formality that will secure Putin a fifth term in power and extend his rule until at least 2030. <\/p>\n

Navalny\u2019s body was\u00a0returned to his mother\u00a0on Saturday, more than a week after his death. Navalnaya had previously claimed Russian authorities were\u00a0blackmailing her\u00a0by refusing to hand over her son\u2019s body until she agreed to conditions for \u201cwhere, when and how Alexey should be buried.\u201d <\/p>\n

Peskov said Monday that Navalnaya\u2019s accusations were \u201cabsurd\u201d and that the Kremlin \u201chas nothing to do with the case\u201d and therefore \u201ccannot exert pressure.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kira Yarmysh, Navalny\u2019s spokesperson,\u00a0said\u00a0on Monday his team is \u201clooking for a hall for a public farewell to Alexey\u201d to be held at the end of this week. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Negotiations to release Russia\u2019s opposition leader\u00a0Alexey Navalny\u00a0in a prisoner swap had reached their \u201cfinal stage\u201d just before his sudden death, a top aide to Navalny has said. Navalny and two US citizens were on the verge of being exchanged for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}