Navalny agreed to be exchanged in prisoner swap which was agreed with Kremlin

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who died in custody, was aware that he was supposed to be exchanged in a prisoner swap and had agreed to it, Reuters reports.

Source: Reuters, citing sources

Quote: "One Russian source with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters that the prisoner exchange had been meant to take place in the middle of February and that both Navalny and his wife had agreed to it."

Details: According to reports, the initial plan called for the exchange of only WSJ correspondent Evan Gershkovich, whom the Kremlin accuses of espionage.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was willing to exchange him for FSB officer Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a murder sentence in Berlin. "But the Germans were categorically against it, because it was an American problem. When Navalny appeared within this plan, the Germans finally agreed," the source said.

"Everything was finally confirmed when (German Chancellor Olaf) Scholz went to the States (he held White House talks on Feb. 9). The details of when and where all this would happen were already being discussed," the source said.

Both Russian sources suggested that Gershkovich's chances of being exchanged had now diminished. "They will be looking for options again, but we're now back to the time of Gershkovich's arrest. There's nothing on the table," said a Russian source.

Previously:

• On 25 February, Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence, revealed that Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny had died of natural causes, specifically a blood clot.
• On 26 February, Maria Pevchikh, the head of Russia’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), formerly headed by Alexei Navalny, said that an agreement had been made to swap the opposition politician in a prisoner exchange before he ended up dying in prison.

Background:

• On the afternoon of 16 February, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Correctional Facility No. 3 in Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in northwestern Siberia.
• Alexei Navalny had been imprisoned since early 2021. The Moscow City Court sentenced him to 19 years in prison in a special-regime colony for "extremism" in August 2023.
• On the morning of 19 February,  Lyudmila Navalnaya arrived at the morgue in the town of Salekhard where the body of her son, opposition politician Alexei Navalny, was allegedly kept. Still, neither she nor her lawyers were allowed in. On 20 February, Lyudmila recorded a video appeal to the president of Russia, demanding her son's body be returned so that she could bury him.
• On 23 February, Lyudmila reported that the prison administration threatened to bury her son's body in the prison colony if she did not agree to a secret, quiet burial.
• On 24 February, Russia’s prison employees finally handed over the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his mother.

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