Swap that never was How Navalny came close to freedom

At Cologne airport on Thursday evening, a group of associates of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, gathered waiting for a plane to arrive from Ankara.

- Shaun Walker

On board were 13 people who, until that morning, had been incarcerated in Russian prisons, including three people who had worked as Navalny's regional coordinators in various Russian cities and had been jailed for "extremism".

After a swap in Turkey, they were now free, along with the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans, who were headed back home on a separate plane.

As the 13 disembarked the plane, it was a moment of joy. But there was also an undertone of wistfulness and anger over one person who was not on the plane: Navalny. The contours of this deal had been drawn up with him in mind, and then, just when his freedom seemed tantalisingly within grasp, he died - or was murdered-in prison.

With the exchange complete, details can now be revealed that show just how close a swap along similar lines but including Navalny appeared to be back in February, after months of careful planning and supposed Kremlin approval.

A detailed investigation by the Wall Street Journal into the behind-the-scenes negotiations over the exchange described how its first origins lie in a meeting in Geneva between Russian and US leaders shortly after Joe Biden became president, long before Gershkovich was arrested. There, Putin suggested setting up a special channel to deal with prisoner swaps, an echo of a cold war practice. Biden agreed. Eventually, it led to Russia releasing the basketball player Brittney Griner, caught at a Moscow airport with a small amount of cannabis oil, in what appeared to be a calculated move to take an American hostage. She was swapped for Viktor Bout, one of the world's most notorious arms dealers.