Navalny agreed to exchange, but Putin could not put up with his release - the media

According to journalists, there was no official proposal for exchange with Navalny, but preliminary conversations were held. Navalny Mary Pivchi's associate said that the oppositionists managed to achieve the exchange of prisoners Alexei and two unnamed US citizens for Vadim Krasikov, a hired killer of the FSB, who is in prison in Germany.

The publication writes that Krasikova was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of the murder of an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in Berlin in 2019. In an interview with American journalist Tair Carlson, Putin stated that he would like to return Krasikov. He called his head of the Kremlin a patriot. Pevchy also stated that on February 15, the exchange negotiations were in the final stage. Alexei Navalny's death came a day later, as Putin could not accept the oppositionist.

According to Pivchi, Roman Abramovich made the proposal for the exchange. According to journalists, although Navalny's associate did not call the names of the Americans who could be exchanged, the Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, as well as the former Marine infantryman Paul Wilan. Russia accuses both men of allegedly espionage. According to the source, the exchange of prisoners was to take place in mid -February. Navalny was agreed.

Abramovich himself participated in the negotiations. "Initially, the plan was only involved in Gershkovich. Abramovich discussed it with Putin. The only person to whom Putin was ready to exchange him is Krasikov. But the Germans were strongly opposed because they consider it a problem of Americans. When Navalny appeared in the framework of this plan , the Germans eventually agreed, "he said.

Another source, close to the Kremlin, reported that Russia and the West in principle have agreed on the exchange with the participation of Navalny and Gershkovich, but the exact details of such an agreement have not yet been processed. Hershkovich's chances of exchange have now decreased. Earlier, the media reported that Germany had canceled the killer's exchange for prisoners in the Russian Federation.