White House ‘had been working’ to include Alexei Navalny in prison swap deal before his death

National security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed the White House was working to include Russian dissident Alexei Navalny in a prisoner swap prior to his death.

Navalny died in a Russian prison near the Arctic Circle in February, where he had been jailed since 2021. The U.S. secured a prison swap Thursday with Russia, which freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and 14 others. Sullivan was asked if Navalny would have been included in the swap if he were still alive during a White House press briefing Thursday.

“So, we had been working with our partners on a deal that would have included Alexei Navalny, and unfortunately he died,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan also shared that he saw Gershkovich’s parents on the day Navalny was announced dead and that Navalny’s death served as extra motivation for President Joe Biden to get the Wall Street Journal reporter and others freed from Russia.

“In fact, on the very day that [Navalny] died, I saw Evan’s parents, and I told them that the president was determined to get this done, even in light of that tragic news, and that we were going to work day and night to get to this day. And so that work continued over the course of the past few months and culminated in today,” Sullivan said Thursday.

Biden condemned the death of Navalny in February, saying in a speech, “Make no mistake, Putin is responsible for an involuntary death.”

The president celebrated the release of the prisoners, saying in a statement that all of them have “endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty” but that “today, their agony is over.”