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 demise, in keeping with 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 costs when he reportedly collapsed after a stroll on the jail grounds.
“Alexey Navalny could possibly be sitting on this seat proper now, proper in the present day. 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 obtained 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 instructed a press convention on Monday that the federal government was conscious of the studies 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 wished to get Krasikov again.
Whereas Pevchikh didn’t identify who the US nationals had been, Washington stated beforehand that it was making an attempt to return Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, again to the USA.
Pevchikh claimed that the potential deal was in its ultimate 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 demise by the hands of Putin and issued sanctions in response.
Nonetheless, the Kremlin has denied the allegation that Moscow had something to do along with his sudden demise and slammed these making allegations with out offering proof.
