Alexei Navalny’s aides have claimed that the Russian opposition leader was going to be freed in a prisoner swap allegedly brokered by former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.
Navaly’s senior aide Maria Pevchikh alleged that the swap would free Navalny and two unnamed US nationals in exchange for a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) assassin.
The deal was reportedly in the final stages of being agreed when Navalny was found dead in the Arctic penal colony he was being kept in.
Pevchikh said Navalny was “supposed to be free in the coming days” after discovering “that negotiations were at the final stage on the evening of February 15”, one day before his death.
She also claimed that Abramovich, who owned Chelsea FC before sanctions were imposed due to the Russia-Ukraine war, was involved in negotiating the trade.
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She said: “Roman Abramovich was the one who delivered the proposal to swap Navalny to Putin … As an informal negotiator communicating with American and European officials, and at the same time, representing Putin, an unofficial channel of communication with the Kremlin.”
Pevchikh said that Vladimir Putin is desperate for hitman Vadim Krasikov to return home, and “was clearly told that the only way to get Krasikov was to exchange him for Navalny”.
However, according to the aide, Putin couldn’t “tolerate Navalny being free”, so he got “rid of the bargaining chip,” alleging that he was responsible for his opposition’s death.
She continued: “It’s absolutely illogical, absolutely irrational, it’s the behaviour of a mad mafioso. But the point is that Putin has gone mad with hatred for Navalny. Putin hated him so much.”
Through mutual acquaintances, she was also able to ask Abramovich about the deal he was supposedly overseeing. He did not respond but “did not deny anything either”.
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Navalny’s allies had reportedly been working on a plan to get him out of Russian since the start of the war in Ukraine two years ago, ultimately to no avail.
Pevchikh said: “Officials, American and German, nodded their heads in understanding. They recounted how important it was to help Navalny and political prisoners, they shook hands, made promises and did nothing.”
This comes after demands for an independent investigation into Navalny’s death after his wife Yulia claimed he had been murdered on Putin’s orders.
