Scholz and Biden discussed Navalny exchange week before his death – WSJ

Journalists from The Wall Street Journal described negotiations between Russia and the United States for the exchange of prisoners, noting that a week before Alexei Navalny's death, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden discussed a possible exchange.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Details: According to the WSJ’s sources, after Biden arrived at the White House, Russia demanded that a spy be exchanged for another spy. The US did not have any Russians convicted of espionage, but Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, according to the WSJ, became interested in former FSB officer Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted of murder in Germany.

Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, was arrested in Russia in the spring of 2023 on charges of espionage. Biden publicly promised to seek his release, but progress in the negotiations was slow, according to the newspaper, until the "unexpected source" - former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - joined the process.

Investigator Christo Grozev asked her to lobby the White House to include Alexei Navalny in the exchange agreement, which they offered in exchange for Krasikov.

At the same time, Yulia Navalnaya addressed German officials in an unofficial capacity. According to the WSJ, opinions in the German government were divided, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock opposing any deal involving Krasikov.

However, as noted by the WSJ, Navalny was a popular figure in Germany, beginning with his treatment in the Charite clinic after poisoning.

Meanwhile, according to the WSJ, Putin has persistently hinted that he is open to proposals for the exchange of American journalist Gershkovich.

The WSJ reports that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Joe Biden in Washington on 9 February. The private topic of the meeting was a discussion of "one of the most complex prisoner trades with the Kremlin since the Cold War". Following the meeting, the governments of the two countries agreed to continue discussing the possibility of exchanging Krasikov for Navalny, but the White House made no formal offer to the Kremlin at the time.

Background:

• Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who died on 16 February in a penal colony, was buried on 1 March in Moscow.
• Maria Pevchikh, head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation formerly headed by Alexei Navalny, said on 26 February that an agreement had been reached to swap the opposition politician in a prisoner exchange, but he died in prison while the negotiations were in the final stages.
• Navalny was aware of the prisoner swap plan and had agreed to it, Reuters reported.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin called the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison a "sad event" and claimed he had been prepared to exchange him.

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