Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who died in prison, was to be swapped for some Russian prisoners held in the West.
Speaking to supporters on Sunday, Putin said that senior Russian officials had floated the idea of a prisoner swap with the West a few days before Navalny’s death, RT reported.
Seen as Putin’s most vociferous critic, Navalny died in February at the Polar Wolf colony inside the Arctic Circle. He was serving a 19-year jail term for offences widely considered politically motivated.
The prison service in the Yamalo-Nenets district had said that Navalny “felt unwell and lost consciousness” after a walk.
“An emergency medical team tried to resuscitate him but without success,” it had said in a statement.
Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya had accused Putin of her husband’s murder and pledged to continue his work.
–IANS