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ALEXEI Navalny was poised to be freed in a prisoner swap – but Vladimir Putin blocked it at the last minute and had his arch foe killed, it was claimed today.
Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had been involved in the doomed deal, according to a sensational new twist outlined by senior Navalny aide Maria Pevchikh.
AP
AP:Associated Press
GettyPevchikh claimed that the West was ready to hand over FSB killer Vadim Krasikov, seen by Putin as a patriot, now in a Germany jail after he was convicted of an assassination.
But Putin – acting like a “mad mafioso” – decided he could not face having his arch-foe Navalny free, even if he was living in exile.
In a dramatic new twist on the Navalny story, London-based Pevchikh said: “Navalny was supposed to be free in the coming days because we had achieved a decision on his exchange.
“In early February, Putin was offered to swap the FSB killer, Vadim Krasikov, who is serving time for murder in Berlin, for two American citizens – and Alexei Navalny.
“I received confirmation that negotiations were at the final stage on the evening of February 15. On February 16, Alexei was killed.”
She added: “Roman Abramovich was the one who delivered the proposal to swap Navalny to Putin…as an informal negotiator communicating with American and European officials, and at the same time, representing Putin, an unofficial channel of communication with the Kremlin.”
Pevchikh alleges that “Putin was clearly told that the only way to get Krasikov was to exchange him for Navalny”.
But, she continues, it was his sheer hatred for Navalny that stopped the deal from happening.
She claims that Putin couldn’t tolerate Navalny being free, and having realised that the West was willing to exchange Krasikov, he got rid of the bargaining chip.
Pevchikh said: “It’s absolutely illogical, absolutely irrational, it’s the behaviour of a mad mafioso.
“The point is that Putin has gone mad with hatred for Navalny. Putin hated him so much.”
Navalny was serving 19 years in hellhole Arctic jail Polar Wolf on trumped up charges intended to repress him.
Instead of freeing him, he had him killed, she alleges.
Pevchikh said: “He acts to his own detriment and against his own rational interests.
“After all, Putin knows for sure that Alexei Navalny could have defeated him, that Alexei Navalny is the future, and he, Putin, is the past.”
She added: “I did ask Roman Abramovich, through mutual acquaintances, how, when, and under what circumstances he did this,[and] what Putin said [regarding an agreement to swap Navalny].
“Unfortunately, Abramovich did not answer these questions, but he did not deny anything either.”
Pevchikh’s allegations join a long list of theories regarding Navalny’s cause of death.
On the two-year anniversary of the war against Ukraine, top Ukrainian spy chief Lt Gen Budanov claimed that Navalny’s cause of death was actually natural causes.
He said: “I may disappoint you, but what we know is that he really died from a blood clot.
“And this is more or less confirmed.
“This was not taken from the Internet, but, unfortunately, a natural [death].”
Meanwhile, grieving widow Yulia Navalnaya has accused Vladimir Putin of “torturing him dead”.
She demanded: “Give us the body of my husband.
“You tortured him alive, and now you keep torturing him dead. You mock the remains of the dead.
“No true Christian could ever do what Putin is now doing with the body of Alexei.”
Navalny’s mum Lyudmila, 69, had originally been blocked from seeing her son’s remains – with reports he was left battered and bruised.
It was only four days ago, six agonising days after her son’s death, that Lyudmila was even shown her son’s body.
The grieving mum claimed Russian officials were trying to blackmail her, and threatened to “do something” to the corpse.
The cruel tyrant asked Navalny’s mum to choose between two alternatives: agree to a secret funeral in an undisclosed location or have her son’s body forever entombed in the Polar Wolf jail.
“They want this to be done secretly, with no farewell. They want to bring me to the edge of a cemetery, to a fresh grave and say: here lies your son. I don’t agree to this,” she said in a YouTube video.
It was only after internal pressure, from Navalny’s family and the Russian Orthodox church, mounted on Putin that the body has been released.
Life of Alexei Navalny
PUTIN'S best known opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, has died in prison.
Here is a timeline that took the leader of the opposition from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s biggest foe to a hellhole Siberian prison and onto an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he majored in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant over-development in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for calling out corruption in state-run corporation
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia’s election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – Further mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement. He rejects the claims and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor’s race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt he blames on Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president
August, 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma on a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Jan 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
Feb 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison
June 2021 — A Moscow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his extended political network
Feb 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication & suffering from slow poisoning
April, 2023 — Navalny from inside prison says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
Aug 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
Dec 2023 – He disappears from his prison as his team fear he could be assassination. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
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