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White House Confirms That Navalny Was Part Of Prisoner Exchange Talks

A mourner lays flowers on the grave of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny at the Borisovo cemetery in Moscow on March 2.

White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said on August 1 that the United States had been working on a prisoner exchange to include Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny prior to his death.

It was the first time a U.S. government official publicly confirmed that negotiations for a prisoner swap with Navalny had been under way prior to his death on February 16.

SEE ALSO: The Prisoner Swap: What's In It For Putin?

Shortly after Navalny died, his allies said that Moscow had been in talks with the West about a prisoner exchange involving the politician. Weeks later, Russian President Vladimir Putin also said that he was prepared to release Navalny in a prisoner swap on condition that he never return to Russia.

Sullivan, speaking to reporters at the White House after the announcement of a prisoner swap involving 16 people released from prisons in Russian and Belarus in exchange for eight Russians, said that at the time of Navalny's death, officials were discussing a possible exchange involving Vadim Krasikov.

Krasikov, one of the eight Russians released in the prisoner swap announced on August 1, was convicted in Germany in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison for killing a former Chechen separatist in a Berlin park two years earlier.

After Navalny died in an Arctic prison under suspicious circumstances on February 16, senior U.S. officials made a fresh push to encourage Germany to release Krasikov. In the end, a handful of the prisoners Russia released on August 1 were either German nationals or dual German-Russian nationals.

Some of Navalny’s associates were freed, including Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeyeva, and Vadim Ostanin. The swap also included Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, a prominent critic of the Kremlin.

Navalny's closest ally, Leonid Volkov, lamented that the historic exchange came too late for his friend.

SEE ALSO: Kurmasheva, Gershkovich, Whelan, Kara-Murza Included In Historic U.S.-Russia Prisoner Swap

“Today, we’re reveling in the release of political prisoners, Putin’s hostages who were suffering in Putin’s gulag,” Volkov said on X. “But it still will be joy with tears in our eyes. ‘The Navalny swap’ has taken place…but without Navalny. It hurts a lot.”

Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, also reacted to the prisoner swap, saying it was a "joy" to see almost a dozen Russian activists and opposition politicians freed.

"Every released political prisoner is a huge victory and a reason to celebrate," Navalnaya said on X, adding those released had been "saved from Putin's regime."

Navalnaya also spoke by phone with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Navalnaya's spokeswoman said.

Harris called to “express her support, noting Aleksei and Yulia's contribution to the fight for a democratic Russia," spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on X.

Yarmysh said Navalnaya thanked Harris "for the U.S. assistance in organizing the exchange."

She also "called on the international community to facilitate the release of other Russian political prisoners," Yarmysh said.

Harris, the Democratic party's presumptive presidential nominee in the November 5 election, was set to welcome Kurmasheva, Gershkovich, and Whelan upon their arrival in Washington at 11:30 p.m. local time.

William Courtney, a career U.S. foreign service officer who worked on U.S.-Soviet arms talks before becoming U.S. ambassador to Georgia and Kazakhstan after the breakup of the Soviet Union, told RFE/RL that the prisoner exchange will be beneficial to the Biden administration's image.

It shows that the administration “knows how to deal with great powers who are adversaries [and] knows how to do complex negotiations,” he said.

Russia gets “nothing but bad publicity internationally” for holding high-profile prisoners like the ones freed on August 1. By releasing them, the Kremlin also avoids the risk of another political prisoner dying on their watch, he added.