OAN Staff Blake Wolf
4:55 PM – Thursday, August 1, 2024
A historic prisoner exchange between the west and Russia on Thursday was supposed to include the now-deceased Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.
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He died while serving a 19-year prison sentence in corrective colony in February. Followers of Navalny still adamantly maintain that Russian President Vladimir Putin was to blame for his death.
The swap deal involved six countries and two dozen prisoners, resulting in Russia securing the return of eight nationals from prisons in various western countries.
The United States were able to secure the release of three Americans, including American Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, retired American Marine Paul Whelan, and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
“We had been working with our partners on a deal that would have included Alexei Navalny. And unfortunately, he died,” said National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
“It is difficult to send back a convicted criminal to secure the release of an innocent American. And yet sometimes the choice is between doing that and cosigning that person basically to live out their days 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 incarcerated.
President Joe Biden has previously expressed that he also believes Putin is to blame for the circumstances relating to Navalny’s death.
“There is no doubt that the death of Navalny is a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did,” Biden said in a statement following Navalny’s death.
In a Thursday announcement, Biden addressed the historic prisoner swap, calling it a “feat of diplomacy.”
“All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over,” Biden said.
Russia’s top request in the exchange was for a man named Vadim Krasikov, who was facing life in prison after being convicted of murder in Germany.
Krashikov was convicted for the murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who had previously fought Russian troops in Chechnya.
At Krasikov’s sentencing in Germany, German judges stated that Krasikov’s crimes were ordered by Russian authorities who had provided the resources required to enter the country and commit the murder.
Meanwhile, Putin claims that the now-deceased Khangoshvili was involved in a terrorist attack that took place in March of 2010.
“In just one of the attacks in which he took part, he [Khangoshvili] killed 98 people. He was one of the organizers of explosions in the Moscow metro,” Putin stated.
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