Putin claims he SUPPORTS Navalny’s release, says it’s ‘sad’ he died after vowing to ‘defeat’ enemies in ‘victory’ tirade

SHAMELESS Vladimir Putin claims he supported the release of his fiercest critic Alexei Navalny from the hell where he died.

The 71-year-old dictator said in an apparent victory speech that he agreed with the proposal just days before Navalny died.

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Putin inevitably has secured another term as Russian leader and will be inside current until at least 2030 after engineering a mock election.

He was wandering around on Sunday evening when it was announced that he had won the election in the first round with 87.28 percent of the vote. after murder, imprisonment or exile its rivals.

Hours before the polls closed, the brutal despot delivered a “victory speech” in which he spoke Navalny‘s name for the first time since 2012.

Putin said in a hoarse voice: “As for Mr Navalny, yes, he has died. It’s always a sad event.

He continued: “A few days before Mr Navalny died, some colleagues told me, not members of my government…

“That there was an idea to exchange Mr Navalny for some people imprisoned in Western countries.

‘You can believe me, maybe not. The person who spoke to me had not finished his sentence. I said I agreed.

But unfortunately, what happened is what happened. Only on one condition that we trade him. He must stay there [in the West].”

Putin added: “But that’s life.”

Navalny, 47, died in Polar Wolf Prison in Russia’s Arctic on Feb. 16 while serving a 19-year prison sentence on trumped-up “extremism” charges.

Western leaders and his camp claim he was “assassinated” on direct orders from Putin and a UN human rights an expert in Russia said last week that his death was Moscow’s responsibility as he was either killed jail or died under conditions amounting to torture.

Navalny’s ally Maria Pevchikh earlier claimed that Navalny was about to be released in a prisoner swap but Putin blocked the deal at the last minute and had him killed instead.

She claimed that the West was ready to extradite the FSB killer Vadim Krasikova Russian assassin serving a life sentence Germany.

It was Putin’s sheer hatred of Navalny that held up the deal, Pevchikh claimed.

When reports of the prisoner swap first emerged, a Kremlin spokesman said the president was “not aware of any such agreements.”

Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh shared a clip of Putin’s speech to X early Monday morning, local time, with the caption: “Putin killed Alexei Navalny.”

In the same rambling speech, the aging leader raged that “there is no democracy in the West” when questioned by journalists about the validity of the presidential election.

He claimed that Russian elections were more transparent than those in the United States.

Putin said: ‘If you want my opinion on whether our elections are democratic, yes, I do believe they are democratic.”

The tyrant accused the US of “using the justice machine to attack any of the candidates,” adding: “We have no preference for any candidate in the US, we will work with whoever is elected .

“But by using the legal system, this has become a joke, an international embarrassment for the US because of your so-called democratic system. I believe that there is no democracy in the electoral process in Western countries and especially in the US.”

He also vowed to “defeat” his enemies as a crowd of supporters cheered.

Putin said: “We are all one team. No one can oppress us, they will never succeed.

“But we, as one united family, can defeat them.

“And all our goals will be achieved, we will do everything we can to achieve this.”

Polling stations across the country were hit by a wave of fire and paint attacks this weekend while the Russians showed their dissatisfaction with the ‘illegitimate’ elections.

Some spoil their votes by writing the name “Navalny” on themin support of the ‘assassinated’ opposition leader, Putin’s fiercest enemy.

Navalny’s widow Julia Navalnayadescribed as the ‘first lady’ of the Russian opposition, risked arrest to cast her vote on Sunday.

She wrote her late husband’s name on her ballot.

Speaking to reporters after casting her vote, she said: “It is clear that I wrote Navalny’s name.

“It cannot be that a month before a presidential campaign, a month before an election, Putin’s main opponent, who was already in prison, was murdered.”

In a message to Russian citizens, she told her supporters: “Just be brave, one day soon we will win.”

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