Photo: EPA-EFE/CLEMENS BILAN
Negotiations to exchange late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny for Russian intelligence officers imprisoned in the West had been under way for a year and a half before Navalny’s sudden death in February, Russian independent news outlet Agentstvo reported on Monday.
Citing an article entitled The Long Way Home about the large-scale prisoner exchange that took place between Russia and the West on 1 August that was published in Razvedchik, a magazine founded by former members of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Agentstvo said that the exchange had been in the works for a year and a half, and that Vladimir Putin had approved the negotiations and ordered SVR head Sergey Naryshkin to take part.
Putin previously claimed that the possibility of exchanging Navalny was discussed in the Kremlin only a few days before the politician’s death.
“A few days before Mr. Navalny’s death, some colleagues, not employees of the administration, told me that there was a proposal to exchange Mr. Navalny for some people who are in prison in Western countries,” Putin said, adding that, “The person who spoke to me had not yet finished his sentence, and I said — I agree. But, unfortunately, what happened happened.”
The publication clearly implied that Alexey Navalny had been on the initial list of prisoners to be exchanged, though it did not mention him by name. “It is noteworthy that the initial list presented to the Russian side was different and included certain odious political figures who, due to reasons beyond our control, did not survive, which is why the exchange process was greatly delayed,” the article said.
Putin referred to Navalny by name for the first time at a post-election press conference in March, having previously avoided doing so, preferring instead to use oblique terms such as “this gentleman” or “this poor excuse for a politician”.
