Navalny's Planned Prisoner Swap Foiled by His Death, Allies Claim
Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was reportedly about to be freed in a prisoner swap involving a Russian hitman serving a life sentence in Germany and two US citizens held in Russia, according to his ally Maria Pevchikh. Negotiations were at their final stage when Navalny died in his prison cell in Siberia, where he was serving a 19-year sentence on widely seen as politically motivated charges. Pevchikh claimed that Putin changed his mind at the last minute, deciding to "just get rid of the bargaining chip" as he "could not tolerate Navalny being free." The Kremlin has not yet reacted to these claims.
