Russian Foreign Service’s house magazine contradicts Putin’s claim that swapping Navalny in August prisoner exchange was only a last-minute idea
The September issue of Razvedchik (the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service’s house magazine) features an article titled “The Long Road Home” about the prisoner exchange between Moscow and the West earlier this year. Journalists at Agentstvo Media were the first to draw attention to the text. According to the article, which appeared on the Foreign Intelligence Service’s website, the negotiations that led to the August 1 prisoner swap were conducted on presidential orders and took roughly 18 months. Additionally, the article reveals that Alexey Navalny was included on the initial exchange list, despite Vladimir Putin’s claim in mid-March 2024 that he learned about a proposal to add the imprisoned opposition leader to the swap only a few days before Navalny’s death.
The authors of “The Long Road Home” don’t mention Navalny’s name directly, writing merely that the prisoner-exchange list included “certain odious political figures who, for reasons beyond our control, did not live to see this day, which delayed the exchange process significantly.” According to the article, Foreign Intelligence Service director Sergey Naryshkin and his deputies represented Moscow in these negotiations.
The timeline described here contradicts the version of events Russia’s president offered in the aftermath of Navalny’s death when Putin claimed that he enthusiastically endorsed sending him to the West:
Just a few days before Mr. Navalny's death, some colleagues — not from my administration, just some people — told me that there was an idea to exchange Mr. Navalny for some people in prisons in Western countries. The person who spoke to me didn’t even finish their sentence before I said: I agree. But unfortunately, what happened, happened. I agreed only under one condition: that we exchange him and he doesn't return — let him stay there [in the West]. Well, these things happen. Nothing can be done about it. That's life.
Putin made these comments at a press conference on March 17 while celebrating his latest presidential reelection. It was the first time he spoke Navalny’s name aloud in public.
Navalny's associates in exile were the first to report plans for his inclusion in an upcoming prisoner swap with Western countries. In late February 2024, Anti-Corruption Foundation chairwoman Maria Pevchikh accused Vladimir Putin of dangling Navalny’s release in negotiations before secretly ordering his killing to prevent the opposition leader from reaching the West.
The prisoner exchange between Russia and the West eventually occurred on August 1 at Ankara Airport. The Russian authorities handed over to Germany and the U.S. Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, Oleg Orlov, Andrey Pivovarov, Sasha Skochilenko, Liliya Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeeva, Vadim Ostanin, Kevin Like, Demuri Voronin, Herman Moizhes, U.S. citizens Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and German citizen Patrick Schebel. Belarus handed over German citizen Rico Krieger.
In exchange, Russia repatriated a group of presumed intelligence agents and hackers. Among them was Federal Security Service officer Vadim Krasikov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for the murder of former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. At Moscow’s Vnukovo-2 airport, Vladimir Putin personally greeted the freed prisoners, telling them that “the Motherland never forgot them for even a minute.” He also promised to grant everyone state awards for their national service. The head of the Foreign Intelligence Service later said his returned colleagues would resume work after a brief rest.