Biden confirmed that Navalny was supposed to be part of the exchange

Biden's office confirmed that Navalny was supposed to be part of the exchange Anastasia Kolesnikova

The White House confirmed that Navalny was supposed to be exchanged/Collage 24 ChannelMore interesting audio newsListen00:0000:501x1xAudio synthesized using AI.More Audio News

On August 1, a prisoner exchange took place between the West and Russia. The Biden administration said that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in February, was also supposed to be returned.

The media reported that Navalny could have been exchanged for FSB officer Krasikov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany. However, the oppositionist died in prison on February 16. The exchange itself took place five months later.

Navalny was also on the exchange list

An associate of the Russian oppositionist, Leonid Volkov, confirmed that it was within the framework of such an exchange, which took place on August 1, that Navalny was to be released. However, according to the politician, Putin “killed him a few days before his release.”

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed at a briefing that the prisoner exchange agreement included Navalny before he died in prison.

CNN journalists note the role of US Vice President Kamala Harris in the exchange. According to media reports, during the Munich Security Conference in February, she had a conversation with Olaf Scholz, whom she convinced to hand over Krasikov to Russia. In addition, Harris met with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, whom she convinced to agree to the extradition of the Dultsev spouses, detained for espionage, to Moscow.

According to Navalny's lawyer Igor Zhdanov on a social network, Harris called Yulia Navalnaya today. The deceased politician's wife thanked the American for her contribution to the exchange that took place.

Recall that in recent days, Russian media reported that several political prisoners had disappeared from the colonies and pretrial detention centers where they were held. It later became known that they had all been taken for exchange. The plane with the Kremlin prisoners landed in Ankara on August 1. In total, Western countries released 16 people from Russia – 5 Germans, 8 Russians and 3 US citizens.