Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died under mysterious circumstances in a remote Arctic prison in February.
Yulia Navalny, the widow of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, says her late husband was to be among those released from Russian prisons last Sunday in a major prisoner swap between Moscow and the West.
In a video statement posted on YouTube on August 8, Navalnya said she and Navalny's associates said shortly after Navalny's death that the prisoner exchange was in its final stages before he died in a remote Arctic prison in February, reports Radio Slobodna Europe (RSE) in English.
"My husband Alexei Navalny was also supposed to be on the plane that first flew to Ankara and then to Cologne. We talked about this half a year ago, right after he was killed in the penal colony in Harp. He was supposed to be exchanged for a murderer FSB Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany," Navalnyaya said.
"The very thought that Navalny could be free seemed terrifying to President Vladimir Putin, and that's why he killed him," said Navalny, adding that she was, however, very happy to see many unjustly imprisoned people freed last Sunday.
"It's been a long time since I felt such relief and happiness, but at the same time I felt bitterness," said Navalny.
She noted that many other Putin critics remain in Russian prisons, including Alexei Gorinov; Daniel Holodni; Navalny's lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, Antonina Favorskaya and Alexey Liptser; sociologist Boris Kagarlicki; co-chairman of the Golos (Voice) movement Grigorij Melkonjanc; and other political prisoners.
On August 1, 16 people, including three American citizens, Alsa Kurmasheva, Evan Gershkovic and Paul Vilano, were released from prisons in Russia and Belarus, in exchange for eight Russians, including Krasikov.
Krasikov was convicted in Germany in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison for killing a former Chechen separatist in a Berlin park two years earlier.
In March, shortly after securing a new six-year term, Putin said he had agreed to trade Navalny on the condition that he not return to Russia.
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