Aides to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Monday that talks were underway about an exchange for a Russian imprisoned in Germany shortly before his death.
“Alexei Navalny could have been sitting here today. This is not a figure of speech,” Maria Pevchikh, a close aide who lives outside Russia, said in a video statement posted on social media. She said she received confirmation that talks were in the “final stages” on February 15, a day before Navalny's death was reported.
Her claims, repeated on social media by other Navalny associates, could not be independently verified and she provided no evidence to support them.
According to Pevchikh, Navalny and two US citizens held in Russia should be exchanged for Vadim Krasikov. He was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 murder of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent, in Berlin. German judges said Krasikov acted on orders from Russian authorities, who gave him a false identity, passport and resources to carry out the murder.
She did not name the US citizens allegedly involved in the deal. Several are in custody in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges, and Paul Whelan, a Michigan security executive who was convicted of espionage and is serving a long prison sentence. She and the US government deny the allegations against her.
Asked whether Russia had made any efforts to secure a swap for Krasikov, German officials declined to comment.
US commentator Tucker Carlson asked President Vladimir Putin earlier this month about the prospects of a Gershkovich replacement, and Putin said the Kremlin was open to negotiations. He referred to a man imprisoned in a “US-allied country” for “liquidating a bandit” who allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya. Putin did not name names but appeared to be referring to Krasikov.
Pevchikh claimed in her video, without providing evidence, that Putin “would not tolerate” Navalny's release and had decided to “get rid of the bargaining chip.”
In response to a regular press conference in Berlin about the Navalny team's claim, government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said she could not comment.
Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center said on Telegram that Putin “basically always carries out an exchange according to the one-for-one formula” and may have been willing to exchange “Krasikov for journalist Evan Gershkovich.”
A Western government official with knowledge of the situation, who insisted on anonymity, said no offer had been made involving Navalny and U.S. citizens.
Sergey Radchenko, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said he was skeptical that Putin would agree to the exchange of Navalny and then “assassinate him at the last moment to avoid this exchange.”
Navalny, 47, Russia's best-known opposition politician, died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16 while serving a 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges that he dismissed as politically motivated.
Navalny had been detained since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow of his own free will after recovering in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. He was later given three prison sentences on charges he dismissed as politically motivated.
His family fought for a week with authorities, who reportedly insisted on a secret funeral before his body was returned to them. Prominent Russians released videos calling on authorities to release the body. Western nations have slapped more sanctions on Russia in response to Navalny's death as well as the invasion of Ukraine, which marked its second anniversary on Saturday.
Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Monday that they were looking for a location for a memorial ceremony later this week.
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Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed. Associated Press reporters Joshua Boak in Washington, D.C. and Elise Morton in London contributed.