According to his team, Alexei Navalny died while he was being exchanged for a Russian criminal

Maria Pevchij, the Russian dissident leader’s right-hand woman, revealed on Monday that Alexei Navalny was due to be released in a prisoner swap at the time of his death.

Pavchij, who accuses Russian authorities of killing Navalny, claims the Russian dissident leader and two American citizens were waiting to be exchanged for Vadim Krasnyakov, a hitman from the Russian FSB security service who is serving a life sentence in Germany. Cutting.

Two cases of Americans imprisoned in Russia have attracted media attention in recent years. On the one hand, ‘The Wall Street Journal’ journalist Ivan Gershkovich was arrested last year and accused of spying for the United States. The other is Paul Whalen, a former Marine who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in Russia on spying charges. He was arrested in 2018. According to Russian intelligence, an external memory device containing classified information was found in his possession.

Both names were mentioned for future exchanges. Navalny’s exchange was also heard in diplomatic circles, though with the specificity that it could only be negotiated at high levels.

Moscow recently distinguished itself by agreeing to a prisoner swap with Washington but demanding the exchange of high-profile criminal figures for Americans held in Russia for minor crimes. The case pertains to arms dealer Victor Butt, better known as Play with other’s lifewho was exchanged in a prisoner exchange for North American basketball player Brittney Griner at Abu Dhabi International Airport in December 2022. This unequal agreement was the cause of jokes and scorn in the Russian federal media, where the United States was presented, as Margarita Simonyan, director of the Russian propaganda channel RT, put it, as a country devoid of morality that would “let a player be gay.” And because he is black, he leaves his spies behind to save himself.”

The charismatic dissident died in an Arctic prison more than a week ago, with no official explanation yet for the causes of his death.

Over the past week, Navalny’s team has spoken out about difficulties in getting his son’s body delivered to them and accused Russian security services of trying to blackmail the family regarding funeral preparations.

The Kremlin on Monday dismissed as absurd allegations that Russian authorities had pressured Alexei Navalny’s mother over her son’s funeral, and said President Vladimir Putin is not involved in decisions about Navalny’s body. Navalny’s team reported on Friday that Russian authorities had given his mother, 69-year-old Lyudmila, an ultimatum: agree to bury him without a public funeral within three hours or resign to bury her son in that prison. Give, where he lost his life.

,I can’t comment because the Kremlin has nothing to do with it. With this, so he cannot put pressure,” said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who disqualified the “absurd statements” of Navalny’s supporters, whom he recalled that “almost all of them are wanted (by Russian authorities). and almost all of them “are abroad”, and therefore “their statements should be considered accordingly”.

The body of the opposition politician was handed over to his mother in the Arctic city of Salekhard on Saturday. His burial arrangements have not yet been announced. Asked whether Putin had anything to do with the problems with body delivery, which Navalny supporters say has been suspiciously slow, Peskov answered a categorical “no”.

It is unclear what independent tests might be conducted on Navalny’s body and what type of funeral might be conducted if it is inside Russia. But meanwhile, theories continue to arise regarding his death. Kirill Budanov, head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, GUR, gave this assurance on Sunday Navalny died due to dislodgement of blood clot, The claims of Ukraine’s military intelligence chief about the cause of the Russian rival’s death match initial claims made by the Kremlin’s propaganda media. “You may be disappointed, but as far as we know, his death was actually caused by a blood clot. And that’s more or less confirmed,” Budanov told reporters on the sidelines of a forum on Ukraine. ”

Navalny, President Putin’s most prominent critic, Died on 16 February One of the harshest prisons in Russia, in northern Siberia. He was serving a 19-year sentence on charges that Putin’s critics described as political retribution for his opposition activity.

The Russian leader, who has never publicly named Navalny, has not commented on the death of his staunch critic.