"Associate Claims Navalny Was to be Exchanged for Vadim Krasikov Before Death"

Negotiations for a prisoner exchange involving Alexei Navalny and two Americans for a Russian agent imprisoned in Germany were in their final stages before Navalny's death in a Russian prison colony. The exchange was proposed by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich to President Vladimir Putin, who ultimately decided to "get rid of the bargaining chip" and offer someone else in the future. Navalny's team had been striving for at least two years to rescue him via a prisoner exchange on humanitarian grounds, but Western officials initially lacked the political will to help. Navalny's body has been handed to his mother after she struggled with Russian officials for eight days to recover it, and nearly 100,000 Russians signed a petition for his body to be handed to his mother.