Repeating accusations by Navalny’s family and supporters that Vladimir Putin was behind his mysterious death on February 16 in an Arctic prison, a close aide of the 47-year-old dissident said those negotiations were in the “final stage”.
Specifically, they related to the exchange of Navalny along with “two American citizens” held by Moscow, whom he did not name, for a Russian executioner held in Germany.
According to Maria Pevtsich, Navalny “would be released within the next few days.” “He could be sitting in that chair right now, today. It’s not a figure of speech, it could and should have been done,” said the dissident’s colleague in a video posted on YouTube.
But who was the Russian prisoner in Germany who would have the opportunity to return to his homeland if Navalny remained alive and the negotiation was successfully completed? Pevchih says he is Vadim Krashikov, who has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2019 killing in a Berlin park of a Chechen former separatist.
Krashikov, 58, a colonel with the Russian Federation’s Federal Security Service (FSB), who had entered Germany with false documents, shot Kangosvili with a Glock 26 in broad daylight in the central Tiergarten park.
According to German justice, the order for the murder of Zelimkan Kangosvili was given directly by the Russian authorities, who have however denied any involvement. The assassination led to a diplomatic row with the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from the German capital.
It is worth noting that Putin indirectly referred to Krashikov in his interview with Tucker Carlson two weeks ago. The Russian leader specifically said the release of American journalist Evan Gershkovich could be secured in an exchange involving a man he described as a “patriot” serving a life sentence in a “US ally” after being convicted of “purging villain”.
Breaking: @Bellingcat and its partners @the_ins_ru and @The mirror have definitively linked the murder of Georgian asylum-seeker of Chechen origin, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, with Russia’s security service FSB.
— Bellingcat (@bellingcat) February 17, 2020
As of 2022 there were reports that the US was asking German authorities to weigh whether Krashikov could be part of a prisoner exchange, given that there were indications that Russia would agree to release two American citizens in exchange for the release of the Russian executioner. These reports, however, have been repeatedly denied by the German government.
Government officials have previously said they would never seriously consider such a request, citing, among other things, the seriousness of the crime. As they pointed out, moreover, the American government would not have the right to request the release of a prisoner convicted of murder in Germany from a German prison.
According to the Guardian, there has never before been an official admission by German officials that there was such a proposal.
Regarding Pevchich’s revelations, a German government spokesman said yesterday at a press conference in Berlin that the German government is aware of information about a planned prisoner exchange with Navalny before his death, but cannot comment on that information to the present.
For his part, John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, confirmed that Russian representatives had made such a request, but dismissed the idea that exchanging two American citizens held hostage by Russia for one would ever be seriously considered. murderer serving a prison sentence in a third country.
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