Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 17 that he had agreed to trade his fiercest critic Alexei Navalny days before the opposition leader died in prison last month.
Speaking in Moscow on March 17 shortly after securing a new six-year term, Putin said he had agreed to the exchange of Navalny on the condition that he not return to Russia.
Navalny died on February 16 under unclear circumstances in a prison in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism and other charges considered politically motivated.
Putin has not said who he wants in exchange for Navalny, but last month in an interview with former Fox News host and political commentator Tucker Carlson, the Russian leader said he was willing to trade Westerners in a Russian prison for a convicted murderer and former Federal Security Service (FSB) colonel. Vadim Krasikov.
Investigative journalist Kristo Grozev said at the end of February Radio Free Europe (RSE) that he was involved in the plan to exchange Navalny for Krasikov, who was convicted of murdering a Chechen citizen of Georgian nationality.
The plan was presented to Putin in February.
