According to Kremlin opponents:

Navalny should be released these days!

The leader of the Russian opposition, who died on February 16, is being mourned around the world. In Russia, despair is spreading.(Bild: AP)

The team surrounding the Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who recently died in custody, has published a sensational video. It shows that the opposition politician should have been released soon.

According to Navalny supporter Maria Pevchikh, an offer had been made to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. In return, the "Tiergarten murderer" Vadim Krasikov, who was imprisoned in Germany, would have returned to Russia. Putin had recently indicated a willingness to swap for Krasikov.

In addition to Navalny, two US citizens could also have been released from prison, revealed the supporter of the politician, who died in a Russian prison camp on February 16. "Navalny was killed because he was to be freed as part of a prisoner exchange," said Pevchikh. He was too dangerous for the head of the Kremlin: "Navalny was a real politician. He had millions of supporters. Navalny was everything Putin will never be."

The leader of the Russian opposition, who died on February 16, is being mourned around the world. Despair is spreading in Russia.(Bild: AP)

Putin had gone mad with hatred for Navalny. The Kremlin ruler hated him so much that he ultimately acted to his own detriment and against his own logical interests, according to Pevchikh.

Speculation fueled by Carlson interview
Putin had fueled speculation about an exchange in early February with statements in an interview with US presenter Tucker Carlson. Without mentioning him by name, Putin indicated that he would like Krasikov to be released. At the same time, he expressed his openness to the release of Evan Gershkovich, the US journalist from the Wall Street Journal who was imprisoned in Russia last year. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was cautious in his initial reaction. "I believe that such delicate issues need to be discussed very confidentially in many places," he said on the sidelines of a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington on February 9.

Tiergarten murder in Berlin
Krasikov was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021 for the murder of a Georgian man in Berlin's Tiergarten park. The court considered it proven that the Russian government was behind the crime. Navalny had been taken to Berlin's Charité hospital and treated following the poison attack on him by Russian secret services in 2020. In January 2021, he decided to return to Russia, where he was immediately arrested and sentenced to many years in prison in several politically controlled trials.

Funeral to take place this week
Meanwhile, it has been announced that Navalny is to be buried this week. A supporter of Navalny said in Moscow on Monday that they are currently looking for a location for a public funeral. The funeral should take place by the end of the working week. The Kremlin denied that the authorities had wanted to force the relatives to hold a secret funeral. Navalny's mother received her son's body at the weekend after she had previously called on Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to hand it over and publicly complained of pressure from investigators. She said that they had wanted to pressure her to bury her son in secret.

Circumstances of death not clarified
According to the authorities, Navalny died on February 16 in the prison camp with the unofficial name "Polar Wolf" in the Siberian Arctic region of Yamal. The circumstances of his death have not been clarified. The politician, weakened by the poison attack in 2020 and repeated solitary confinement in the camp, is said to have collapsed during a tour of the icy prison yard and died despite attempts to resuscitate him. According to Navalny's team, the death certificate mentions "natural" causes. The politician was 47 years old at the time of his death.