Extract from ABC News
One of Alexei Navalny's close allies says the Russian opposition politician was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his death.
Speaking on YouTube, Maria Pevchikh said talks about exchanging Mr Navalny and two unnamed US nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian FSB security service hit man in jail in Germany, were in their final stages at the time of his death.
Mr Navalny, 47, died at an Arctic penal colony on February 16.
The Kremlin has denied Russian state involvement in his death. According to his supporters, Mr Navalny's death certificate states he died of natural causes.
"Alexei Navalny could be sitting in this seat right now, right today. That's not a figure of speech, it (the prisoner swap) could and should have happened," Ms Pevchikh said.
"Navalny should have been out in the next few days because we got a decision about his exchange. In early February, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin was offered to exchange the killer, FSB officer Vadim Krasikov, who's serving time for a murder in Berlin, for two American citizens and Alexei Navalny."
Krasikov was jailed for life in Germany after being convicted of killing an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in Berlin's Tiergarten park in 2019.
Mr Putin signalled in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson this month that he wanted to get Krasikov back.
Ms Pevchikh said she had confirmation that negotiations for the swap were in their final stages on the evening of February 15.
Mr Navalny, she alleged, had been killed a day later because Mr Putin could not tolerate the thought of him being free.
Ms Pevchikh, who is based outside Russia, did not immediately disclose sources for some of her assertions or present documentary evidence.
She said businessman Roman Abramovich had been involved in some of the talks as a mediator with Putin. There was no immediate comment from Mr Abramovich.
Ms Pevchikh did not name the two US nationals in contention to be swapped along with Mr Navalny. But the United States has said it is trying to return Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Paul Whelan, a former US marine.
Russia accuses both men of espionage, something they deny.
Desperate efforts to see Navalny released
Mr Putin, who has yet to comment on Mr Navalny's death, had previously said talks between Russian and US intelligence agencies about Mr Gershkovich were going on behind the scenes, but he had made no mention of Mr Navalny, whose name he does not usually mention publicly.
Ms Pevchikh said Mr Navalny's allies had been working since the start of the Ukraine war on a plan to get him out of Russia as part of a prisoner exchange involving "Russian spies in exchange for political prisoners".
She said they had made desperate efforts and tried to find intermediaries, even approaching the late Henry Kissinger, but said Western governments had failed to show the necessary political will.
"Officials, American and German, nodded their heads in understanding," she said.
"They recounted how important it was to help Navalny and political prisoners, they shook hands, made promises and did nothing."
Reuters
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