Germany Navalny team happy about exchange
The team of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in a prison camp, is happy about the prisoner exchange between Western countries and Russia and the release of numerous opposition activists.
02.08.2024, 13:52
SDA
The Navalny team itself helped to compile the list, said Maria Pevchikh, head of the anti-corruption fund once founded by the opposition leader. "I hope this will be repeated an infinite number of times," she said.
Pevchikh and other Navalny supporters had traveled to Cologne to receive the opposition members released by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, including politician Ilya Yashin. One photo showed Yashin in prison clothes. He announced that he would soon reveal more about the exchange.
Navalny's death increased pressure
Navalny's comrade-in-arms Leonid Volkov, who had also traveled to Cologne, announced that Navalny was also to be exchanged in this way. Navalny's team assumes that the death of the Putin opponent has increased the pressure on the West to go through with the exchange and act before it is too late for other political prisoners. Above all, Putin had pushed for the release of the "zoo murderer" Vadim Krasikov, whom he received with a warm embrace in Moscow on Thursday evening.
Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, thanked Washington for helping to organize the exchange during a phone call with prospective US presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Navalnaya, who is continuing her husband's work, called on the international community to continue its efforts to free political prisoners in Russia.
It was unclear whether the men and women would remain in Germany, where the Navalny team is also active, or whether they would move to their home base in the Baltic states.
Pevchikh said that this was an unprecedented exchange since the end of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union collapsed after the end of the Cold War a good 30 years ago. Whether further exchanges would be possible in the future would depend on the officials and foreign ministries in the USA and Germany.
Germany wanted eight political prisoners
The release of eight political prisoners from Russia is primarily thanks to Germany, said investigative journalist Christo Grozev in an interview with US broadcaster CNN. Initial negotiations on an exchange of Krassikov for Navalny had become obsolete due to his death. "Then Germany took the morally important position and said: we will continue to pursue this exchange, but Putin must now pay a much higher price," said Grozev. "Instead of one person for the killer, we now demand eight. And they have pushed it through."
The Bulgarian, who has repeatedly worked with Navalny's team, said he had been involved in behind-the-scenes discussions about the exchange for two years. Putin appears to have had a personal interest in Krassikov's return, Grozev said. There were indications that the contact dated back to the time before Putin became Russian president.
