By Blake Wolf, OAN Staff
Thursday, August 1, 2024 4:55 PM
Thursday’s historic prisoner swap between Western countries and Russia was meant to include the deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
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He died in February while serving a 19-year sentence in a correctional facility, and Navalny’s supporters remain adamant that Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for his death.
The swap deal involved six countries and 24 prisoners and resulted in Russia securing the return of eight of its nationals from Western prisons.
The United States was able to secure the release of three Americans, including one from the United States. The Wall Street Journal Journalist Evan Gershkovich, retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and Russian-American journalist Ars Kurmaseva.
“We were working with our partners on an agreement that involved Alexei Navalny, and unfortunately, he has passed away,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
“It is difficult to deport convicted criminals to secure the release of innocent Americans, but sometimes we must choose between doing so and essentially allowing them to spend the rest of their lives in prison in a hostile foreign country,” Sullivan added.
Navalny, a political rival and critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, died under mysterious circumstances while in prison.
President Joe Biden has previously said he believes Putin is also responsible for the circumstances surrounding Navalny’s death.
“There is no question that Mr. Navalny’s death is the result of actions conducted by President Putin and his minions,” Biden said in a statement after Navalny’s death.
Biden referred to the historic prisoner exchange in his announcement Thursday, calling it a “diplomatic feat.”
“All of them have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their suffering ends,” Biden said.
The person Russia most wanted in the exchange was a man named Vadim Krasikov, who had been convicted of murder in Germany and was facing life imprisonment.
Krasikov was convicted of murdering Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian national who once fought against Russian forces in Chechnya.
At Krasikov’s sentencing in Germany, a German judge said Krasikov’s crimes were committed at the behest of Russian authorities who provided him with the resources he needed to enter the country and commit the murders.
Putin, meanwhile, has alleged that the now-deceased Khangoshvili was involved in a terrorist attack in March 2010.
“Just one of the attacks he participated in [Khangoshvili] “He killed 98 people. He was one of the organizers of the explosions in the Moscow subway,” Putin said.
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