Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap before his sudden death, according to his ally Maria Pevchikh.
In a video posted to YouTube on Monday, Pevchikh claimed the planned swap involved exchanging Navalny and two unnamed US nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) assassin in Germany.
Navalny, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died at 47 in an Artic penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges when he reportedly collapsed after a walk on the prison grounds.
“Alexey Navalny could be sitting in this seat right now, right today. That’s not a figure of speech, it could and should have happened,” said Pevchikh.
A German spokesperson told a press conference on Monday that the government was aware of the reports of an alleged swap, but could not comment on them.
Credit: aljazeera.com
