Navalny was on the verge of being freed in a high-stakes deal with Putin when he suddenly died, his staffers claim

• Alexey Navalny, Putin's political foe, died at an Arctic penal colony on February 16.
• Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his death.
• Navalny ally Maria Pevchikh said Putin had the dissident killed to prevent the swap.

Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin's political nemesis, was on the verge of being freed as part of a high-stakes prisoner exchange before his sudden death, according to his staffers.

In a video posted to YouTube titled "Why did Putin kill Navalny now?" journalist and anti-corruption activist Maria Pevchikh alleged that the Russian president had Navalny killed because he didn't want the exchange to go through.

"Navalny was supposed to be free in the coming days because we had received a decision on his exchange," Pevchikh said in the video.

"In early February, Putin was offered to swap the FSB killer, Vladim Krasikov, who is serving time for murder in Berlin for two American citizens and Alexey Navalny," she added.

Pevchikh did not name the two US nationals who were being considered as part of the prisoner swap. However, Reuters noted that the US had been trying to secure the return Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and former US marine Paul Whelan.

Navalny died suddenly at an Arctic penal colony on February 16 at the age of 47. The Kremlin has denied Russia had any involvement in his death.

Pevchikh, who is the chairwoman of Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, which Navalny founded, said that the negotiations for the prisoner swap were at "the final stage" the night before his death.

Putin had expressed interest in a prisoner swap in his interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the beginning of February.

Putin said he would be open to exchanging Gershkovich — who is being detained in a Moscow prison — for "a person, due to patriotic sentiments, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals" during "the events in the Caucasus"

While Putin didn't directly name anyone, his comments were widely interpreted as being in reference to Krasikov, who was convicted for the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvil, a Georgian military officer of Chechen descent, in 2019.

Navalny became unwell after taking a walk in prison and almost immediately lost consciousness, the country's Federal Prison Service said as his death was announced.

Russian officials have since said he died of "natural causes," but that hasn't stopped world leaders, commentators, and Navalny's family from placing the blame on Putin.

Maxim Alyukov, a political sociologist at King's College London with a focus on Russia, previously told BI that Navalny's death was consistent with a "political killing," serving as a warning to others who may try to defy Putin ahead of the upcoming election.

Callum Fraser, a Research Fellow in the International Security Studies department at RUSI, specializing in Russian foreign policy, agreed with this point."Putin could very well have wanted to remove Navalny, a symbolic figure of Russian opposition, to reduce the chances of dissent within the election period," Fraser told BI

Lyudmila Navalnaya, Navalny's mother, said in a statement on Friday that she was being blackmailed by Russian authorities, who she said threatened to "do something" to her son's body unless she agreed to a secret funeral.

Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokesperson, confirmed on Saturday that his body had been returned to his mother. It is not yet known whether the family will be allowed to pay their respects in a public setting.

"The funeral is still pending. We do not know if the authorities will interfere to carry it out as the family wants and as Alexey deserves. We will inform you as soon as there is news," she wrote on X.