A close associate of Alexei Navalny says the late Russian opposition leader was days away from being released in a prisoner exchange. Maria Pevchikh, chair of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, spoke on Alexei Navalny’s YouTube channel.
Maria Pevchikh: “Navalny was everything Putin could never be. And Putin hated him for it. But why did he kill him now? Why February 16th? … Alexei Navalny could have been sitting in my place right now, today. This is not a figure of speech. This could have and should have happened. Navalny was supposed to be free in the coming days, because we had achieved a decision on his exchange.”
Maria Pevchikh accused Putin of killing Navalny to prevent the swap from happening. Navalny was allegedly to be exchanged along with unnamed U.S. nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian secret service member who is serving a life sentence in Germany for a 2019 murder of a Georgian-born Chechen dissident. Media outlets speculate the two American citizens could be Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former marine Paul Whelan.