Putin claims he agreed to prisoner swap for Alexei Navalny before dissident’s death in prison
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called the sudden death of Alexei Navalny an “unfortunate incident” and said he’d been ready to free the dissident in a prison swap reportedly also involving Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Putin, speaking fresh off his re-election to another six years in office, said the only condition he would have put on freeing his harshest critic, Navalny, a married 47-year-old lawyer and dad of two, was to agree to not return to Russia.
“Just with one condition: ‘We’ll trade him but make sure that he doesn’t come back, let him stay over there,’ ” the Russian strongman said, referring to the US.
“But this happens. That’s life,” he said of Navalny’s sudden and mysterious death last month at the remote prison he was serving time at for alleged extremism — adding that the opposition leader’s passing was an “unfortunate incident,” according to the New York Times.
Discussions about the reputed swap, detailed to the Times by an unnamed Western official, had been under way when Navalny was reported dead Feb. 16.
The swap would purportedly have seen Navalny and two Americans imprisoned in Russia – Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan – traded in exchange for Vadim Krasikov, who is currently imprisoned in Germany in connection to a 2019 murder.
“This is a sad event,” Putin said in his first comments on Navalny’s death. “But we’ve had other cases when people have passed away in correctional facilities. And what, hasn’t this happened in the United States, too?”
Navalny’s widow, Yulia, and his political allies have openly accused Putin and his associates of having him killed – possibly with the nerve agent Novichok – a claim the Kremlin has denied.
During his post-election remarks Monday, Putin also cautioned the West against its continued support of Ukraine, which has been locked in war with Russia since the Kremlin ordered its army to invade it in February 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Putin claimed that Russia knows American military personnel and other NATO officials are present in Ukraine helping Moscow’s enemy.
He warned that a conflict between Russia and NATO “cannot be ruled out in the future” despite the ongoing threat of World War III.
Putin insisted that peace in Ukraine would come — as long as it’s on his terms.
“We are for peace negotiations, … But it is not because the enemy is running out of ammunition,” Putin said, referring to Ukraine’s dire supply issues. “We are for it if they are truly serious [and] in the long term they want to build peaceful, good neighborly relations between the two states and not take a pause for one and a half to two years to rearm.”
Despite help from its Western allies, Ukraine remains outmanned and with fewer weapons than Russia as the war continues on in its third year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected any peace talks with Russia until its troops are withdrawn from Ukraine.
With Post wires
