What if the question of the timing of Alexei Navalny's death was resolved?
In any case, this is what the team of the leader of the Russian opposition thinks this Monday, according to whom an agreement to exchange the opponent was “in progress and in its final phase” with the Russian authorities before his death in prison a little over a week ago.
According to Maria Pevtchikh, a collaborator of the opponent, Alexeï Navalny should have been exchanged along with “two American citizens” detained by Moscow against Vadim Krasikov, a Russian imprisoned in Germany.
“I have received confirmation that negotiations are ongoing and in their final stages,” she added.
According to Maria Pevtchikh, her team had been “working” for two years to “get” Alexeï Navalny out of prison “at all costs”, on the basis of an exchange of “Russian spies for political prisoners” held in Russia.
Washington and Berlin were aware, she assured, without specifying exactly the role of the two chancelleries in the discussions.
After several months without progress, the agreement “was put back on the table in December” 2023, said Maria Pevtchikh in a video.
Exchange for a Russian murderer
According to her, Vadim Krassikov, sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination in 2019 in a Berlin park of a former Chechen separatist, should be included in this exchange of prisoners.
According to German justice, this murder was directly ordered by the Russian authorities, who have always denied any involvement.
When questioned by journalists, the German government spokesperson refused to comment on the statements by Navalny's team.
Also read Death of Alexeï Navalny: “Putin killed the best of us”
Russia notably detains several Americans including Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich imprisoned since March 2023 for "espionage" - an accusation that the person concerned, his employer and his family reject -, as well as a former marine, Paul Whelan.
The circumstances of the death of Alexeï Navalny, which moved people around the world, remain unclear.
According to the Russian Prison Service, he died following a sudden malaise “after a walk”.
The body of Alexeï Navalny was finally handed over this Saturday to his mother, according to Kira Iarmich, the spokesperson for the Russian opponent, adding that she did not know under what conditions a funeral would be authorized.
She then added that she did not know if "the authorities will prevent (the funeral) from taking place as the family wishes and as Alexei deserves", while in the morning Yulia Navalnaïa, who vowed to continue the fight from abroad of her husband, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of preventing the body from being handed over to the family.