Navalny was to be exchanged as part of deal with Russia – White House

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February, was supposed to be part of a prisoner exchange deal between the West and Russia.

Source: Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to US President Joe Biden, at a briefing on 1 August, European Pravda reports

Details: Sullivan said that the United States "had been working with our partners on a deal that would have included Alexei Navalny, and, unfortunately, he died."

Navalny's political associates had previously spoken about the deal to exchange him. 

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.
• The US intelligence services believe that Russian leader Vladimir Putin likely did not order the murder of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
• On Thursday, Türkiye officially confirmed the exchange of 26 prisoners held in prisons in seven different countries: the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus.
• Among others, The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and US Marine Paul Whelan, German citizen Rico Krieger, who was imprisoned in Belarus, and Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin were released.

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