Yulia Navalnaya, wife of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, recently claimed that her husband should have been included in the recent large-scale prisoner exchange between Moscow and the West.
In an August 8 YouTube video, Navalnaya revealed that she and Navalny’s allies had learned that negotiations for a prisoner swap, which included her husband, were in the final stages.
Navalny, who has been imprisoned in Russia since 2021, was initially sentenced on charges widely believed to be politically motivated.
According to Navalnaya, the proposed swap would have involved exchanging her husband for Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted of the 2019 murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a former Chechen militant, in Berlin. Krasikov’s case has been a significant point of tension between Russia and Germany, with the latter accusing Russia of orchestrating Khangoshvili’s assassination.
Navalnaya suggested that the exchange could have saved Navalny’s life and brought him back to safety. However, she believed that President Vladimir Putin saw Navalny’s potential release as too great a threat to his authority, which led to his alleged murder.
In her video, Navalnaya expressed mixed emotions about the recent prisoner exchange. While she was relieved to see many unjustly imprisoned individuals freed, she felt deep sorrow that her husband was not among them.
“I haven’t felt such relief and happiness for a long time, but at the same time, I felt bitterness,” Navalnaya said. “Knowing that Alexei could have been freed, yet wasn’t, is something I will carry with me forever.”
Navalny, who survived a poisoning attempt in 2020 that has been widely attributed to the Kremlin, had been a persistent critic of Putin’s government. His imprisonment and death in February this year have drawn international condemnation.
