Navalny was about to be freed when he died | EUROtoday

These phrases, nevertheless, responded to a query about the opportunity of a launch for Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal correspondent arrested in Russia on espionage costs. Maria Pevchikh, nevertheless, explains that it was the entrepreneur Roman Abramovich – an individual able to coping with Americans and Europeans – who proposed to Putin an trade with Navalny, the one option to get Krasikov again. She confirms that for some motive the return dwelling of what Pevchick calls “the Berlin murderer” is essential for Putin.

Putin modifications his thoughts

The remainder of the story is the reply to the preliminary query: why then kill Navalny? The concept of ​​seeing him free once more was unacceptable for Putin, explains Maria Pevchikh: “She hates him because Navalny was a true politician, a man for whose ideas people risked their freedom, he was everything that Putin could never be.” So the Russian president stated to himself that if the West had accepted in precept the concept of ​​releasing Krasikov, it could be sufficient for him to do away with the “bargaining piece” after which, later, provide another person in trade. Maybe a dissident much less harmful in his eyes than Navalny, like Vladimir Kara-Murza.

«The conduct of a mad mafia individual – says Maria Pevchikh -. Putin is aware of that Alexei Navalny might have defeated him: he’s the longer term, Putin is the previous. And Putin is aware of for positive that due to Navalny's investigations he’ll go down in historical past as a cowardly and corrupt thief.”

His wife also knew about the negotiations

According to a source close to the negotiations interviewed by the Reuters agency, both Navalny and his wife Yulia were aware of the prisoner exchange, which should have taken place in mid-February. The latest confirmations took place on February 9, during the visit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House: if initially the exchange should have concerned only Gershkovich and Krasikov, it was the inclusion of Navalny that convinced the German authorities to accept.

The ceremony for Navalny

While the Fbk Foundation released the video of Maria Pevchikh, spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh made it known that they are looking for an appropriate place to publicly pay homage to Navalny, whose body was returned to his mother after a long wait in Salekhard, in the Arctic. But if it is assumed that the place of burial is Moscow, there remains uncertainty as to the methods that will be permitted by the authorities for a funeral that is certainly destined to turn into a demonstration against the regime. «Navalny was a symbol of defiance – commented the Russian writer Boris Akunin in recent days, speaking to the BBC -. And in the Kremlin's logic, if a person is no longer there, the problem disappears. But they are wrong. From now on Alexei Navalny will become a real problem for Vladimir Putin. They can't kill him again. He will live forever, as a symbol.”