'It happens... it's life', says Putin in his first comment on Navalny's death

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who won the elections unopposed, finally broke silence on his biggest critic Alexei Navalny’s death, asserting that he supported an idea to release the opposition leader in a prisoner exchange.

In one of his first comments on Navalny’s death, Putin said, “It happens. There is nothing you can do about it. It’s life.”

Responding to a question by NBC, the Russian president, who has clinched a fifth term, said that just a few days before Navalny’s death, his colleagues had told Putin about an idea to exchange Navalny “for some people in prison in Western countries.”

“Believe me or not, the person talking to me hardly finished their sentence when I said: ‘I agree.’ But unfortunately, the thing that happened happened,” Putin said as he declared victory in the elections.

Navalny died in prison in February reportedly due to ill health, a claim rejected by his allies.

Meanwhile, Navalny’s allies last month also said that talks with Russian and Western officials about a prisoner swap were underway. The politician’s longtime associate Maria Pevchikh said the talks were in their final stages just days before the Kremlin critic’s sudden and unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony.

However, they also claimed that Putin had Navalny killed to thwart the prisoner exchange deal.

What condition did Putin set to release Navalny?

While the Russian president claims that he had supported the release of his foe under a prisoner exchange deal, Putin said that such a swap could only happen if Navalny agreed to never return to Russia.

Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who is in Berlin, reportedly refused an offer to come back to Russia to see her husband, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told NBC.

There are several in custody in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, convicted of espionage and serving a long prison sentence.

With inputs from agencies