Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed for the first time on Sunday that the now deceased Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was to be freed in a prisoner exchange.
Putin said at a press conference in Moscow following his victory in presidential elections accompanied by allegations of manipulation that he had already given his approval for Navalny to be exchanged for Russians imprisoned in the West.
"As for Mr Navalny, he is no longer alive," Putin was quoted as saying. "This is a sad event."
"Unfortunately, what happened happened," Putin went on to say about the activist's death. "But it happens, there's nothing you can do about it, that's life."
According to the authorities, Navalny died on February 16 in a prison camp in the Yamal region, 1,900 kilometres north-east of Moscow, at the age of 47. The circumstances of his death have not been clarified. In 2020 he had survived a poisoning attack.
His widow Yulia Navalnaya believes her husband was murdered in the camp.
Navalny's long-time confidant Leonid Volkov called Putin's statement a month after the Kremlin opponent's death "cynical."
Putin, who uttered Navalny's name for the first time since his death on Sunday, had in fact killed his opponent, said Volkov, describing Putin as a "blood-sucking bug" that would soon burst.
Putin's comments appeared to corroborate a statement by the political director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, Maria Pevchikh, made about a week after his death.
Pevchikh said that a deal had been reached to exchange Navalny for a Russian convicted of murder in Germany, and that the activist died just days before the swap was meant to take place.