Navalny was close to being freed from prison before his death, says ally | Politics News

Maria Pevchikh says Alexey Navalny was as a result of be freed in alternate for a Russian FSB murderer imprisoned in Germany.

Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny was near being freed in a prisoner swap earlier than his sudden loss of life, based on his ally Maria Pevchikh.

In a video posted to YouTube on Monday, Pevchikh claimed the deliberate swap concerned exchanging Navalny and two unnamed US nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian Federal Safety Service (FSB) murderer in Germany.

Navalny, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died at 47 in an Artic penal colony, the place he was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism prices when he reportedly collapsed after a stroll on the jail grounds.

“Alexey Navalny may very well be sitting on this seat proper now, proper immediately. That’s not a determine of speech, it may and will have occurred,” stated Pevchikh.

“Navalny ought to have been out within the subsequent few days as a result of we bought a call about his alternate. In early February, Putin was provided to alternate the killer, FSB officer Vadim Krasikov, who’s serving time for a homicide in Berlin, for 2 Americans and Alexey Navalny.”

A German spokesperson informed a press convention on Monday that the federal government was conscious of the stories of an alleged swap, however couldn’t touch upon them.

The Russian hitman Krasikov, who was a part of the alleged deal, was jailed for all times in Germany after being convicted of killing an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in Berlin’s Tiergarten Park in 2019 – an assassination that German authorities say was ordered by Russian intelligence companies.

In an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson earlier in February, Putin signalled that he needed to get Krasikov again.

Whereas Pevchikh didn’t title who the US nationals had been, Washington stated beforehand that it was attempting to return Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, again to the US.

Pevchikh claimed that the potential deal was in its remaining levels on the night of February 15. She stated Navalny was killed a day later as a result of Putin couldn’t tolerate the considered him being free.

World leaders, together with within the US, have positioned blame for Navalny’s loss of life by the hands of Putin and issued sanctions in response.

Nevertheless, the Kremlin has denied the allegation that Moscow had something to do along with his sudden loss of life and slammed these making allegations with out offering proof.