Russian President Vladimir Putin (71) has murdered opposition leader Alexei Navalny (47) because he was about to be swapped with a Russian assassin. This is what Maria Pevchich, the chairman of the board of directors of Navalny’s anti-corruption fund FBK, claims. Negotiations on the prisoner exchange “were in the final stages,” Pevchich said.
TVdB
Latest update:
12:35
Source:
Meduza, Reuters, The Moscow Times
According to Pevchich, Putin received a proposal in early February to exchange Navalny and “two American citizens” for the Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov (58). “I received confirmation on the evening of February 15 that the negotiations were in the final stages,” Pevchikh said. “But a day later, Navalny was killed.”
Krasikov is serving a life sentence in Germany. In 2019, the Russian shot dead Chechen fighter Zemlichan Changoshvili in a park in Berlin. According to German authorities, Krasikov carried out the murder on the orders of Russian intelligence services. For example, Changoshvili is said to have captured the Russian city of Nazran together with fellow fighters in 2004, after which Moscow placed him on the terror list.
LOOK. Widow Navalny in video message: “Putin killed my husband because he couldn’t break him”
It is not yet clear who the “two American citizens” are, although one of them may be ‘The Wall Street Journal’ journalist Evan Gershkovich. Gershkovich, 31, was arrested by Russian security services on March 29 during a report in Yekaterinburg in the Urals. The American journalist is accused of espionage.
Also read:
RECONSTRUCTION. What we know in the meantime about Navalny’s death: fabrications of friend and enemy are punctured (+)
Navalny’s body has been handed over to his mother
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss anything from the stars.