U.S. 'Not Commenting' On Reports Of Navalny Prisoner Swap

The State Department on Monday wouldn’t comment on reports of a potential prisoner swap with Russia for the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny when he died on Feb. 16, TURAN’s Washington correspondent reports.

“I’m not going to speak to either internal deliberations or our work to secure the release of people held overseas,” Spokesperson Matthew Miller told a daily briefing when pressed by reporters. “We had long called for Alexei Navalny’s release.”

Earlier on Monday an ally of Navalny posted a video on YouTube claiming that a prisoner swap that would free the opposition leader had been in negotiations along with the U.S. and Germany for months before his death.

Miller, when asked by TURAN, would not say whether any potential Western prisoner swap deal with Moscow would have included non-Americans citizens such as Navalny. 

“I’m just not going to speak to our conversations with any of our diplomatic partners about the work that we do to try to secure the release of wrongfully detained Americans or others held around the world,” he added.