Putin mentions Navalny’s name for the first time after election victory

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has mentioned Alexei Navalny’s name for the first time after his election victory on Monday, saying he agreed with the suggestion to let opposition leader Alexei Navalny go free in exchange for another prisoner. This happened just a few days before Navalny’s biggest enemy passed away.

In his first words about Navalny’s death, Putin said, “It happens. ” You can’t do anything about it. “It’s the way things are. ”

The comments were strange because he kept saying Navalny’s name, which he hasn’t done in years. They appeared at a late-night news conference while the results were coming in from a presidential election. The election extended his time as leader for six more years. The Kremlin stopped the opposition and weakened independent media.

Navalny’s friends said they were talking to Russian and Western officials about exchanging prisoners. The politician’s friend, Maria Pevchikh, said they were close to making a deal with Russia to exchange a person held in Germany for two Americans. This happened just before the politician died in a prison in the Arctic.

She said Putin wanted to harm Navalny without trading him, but she didn’t prove it, and others couldn’t check if it was true.

Putin said on Monday that a few days before Navalny died, some of his colleagues mentioned to him the idea of swapping Navalny for other people held in prisons in Western countries. He said he agreed with the idea, but did not provide any proof.

Putin said that the person he was talking to didn’t finish their sentence before he agreed with what they were saying, in response to a journalist’s question about Navalny’s death. He said the one thing he wanted was for Navalny to not go back to Russia.

“Unfortunately, whatever happened, has happened,” said Putin.

American officials said that Russia and the United States have not talked about exchanging Alexei Navalny for prisoners from the West.

Jake Sullivan, who is in charge of keeping our country safe, said that American officials have been talking to Russia for a long time about releasing American prisoners. But in all these conversations, the Russian officials have not mentioned the name of Alexey Navalny for a prisoner swap.

Navalny was a famous opposition leader in Russia. He died last month while in jail for charges he said were unfair. He was 47 years old. His friends, relatives, and officials from Western countries said that the Kremlin was responsible for the death, but the Kremlin has said it is not true.

The politician’s friends said that the officials wrote “natural causes” on the papers that Navalny’s mother was given when she was trying to get his body.

Navalny went to jail in January 2021 after he came back to Moscow from Germany, where he had been getting better from being poisoned. He said that the Kremlin was behind the poisoning. He got arrested right away. The Kremlin strongly denies that it was responsible for the poisoning.

Pevchikh said that there was a plan to trade Navalny and two Americans in Russia for Vadim Krasikov. He was in prison in Germany for the rest of his life because he killed a man named Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili in Berlin in 2019. Khangoshvili was a 40-year-old man from Georgia with Chechen heritage. German judges said that Krasikov did what the Russian government told him to do.

She didn’t find out who the American citizens were that were supposed to be involved in the agreement. A few people are being held in Russia. One of them is Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He was arrested for spying. Another person in custody is Paul Whelan, who works in corporate security in Michigan. He was found guilty of spying and is now in prison for a long time. They disagree with the charges brought by the US government.

Sullivan said on Monday that the US is talking to important Russian people and has made some offers to get the two men released. “It’s very important to us to get the men out of Russia,” Sullivan said.

German officials did not say anything when asked if Russia tried to trade Krasikov.

Putin said that the Kremlin is willing to talk about Gershkovich. He showed a man who was put in jail in a country that is friends with the US for killing someone who had harmed Russian soldiers in a fight in Chechnya. Putin didn’t say any names but seemed to be talking about Krasikov.