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Alexei Navalny was set to be freed as part of a prisoner swap when he died, one of his allies has said,

The Russian opposition leader died at a penal colony within the Artic Circle while serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges his supporters said were politically motivated.

His death was announced on 16 February.

An ally of Mr Navalny has said the prisoner-swap talks were in their “final stages” when he died.

In a video posted on the late Kremlin critic’s YouTube channel, Maria Pevchikh, who lives outside Russia, said: “Alexei Navalny could have been sitting here now, today. It’s not a figure of speech.”

Ms Pevchikh said she received confirmation about the talks just one day before Mr Navalny’s death was announced.

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She said Putin “wouldn’t tolerate” Navalny being freed and decided to “get rid of the bargaining chip”. She has not offered evidence to back up the allegation.

The circumstances of Mr Navalny’s death remain unclear – but several world leaders, including Joe Biden, have directly blamed Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.

Mr Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya has also pointed the finger at the Russian president, claiming her husband could have been poisoned with novichok.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement in his death.

Ms Pevchikh said Mr Navalny and two US citizens held in Russia, whom she has not identified, were supposed to be swapped for Vadim Krasikov.

Krasikov is serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent.

A Western official told Sky News partner NBC News: “No formal offer had been made, but early discussions involving an exchange for Navalny and US citizens were under way.”

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There are several US citizens in custody in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges, and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, convicted of espionage.

Both men and the US government dispute the charge.

The German government has declined to comment on a possible prisoner swap.

An American couple who disappeared a week ago after their catamaran was hijacked by three escaped convicts are likely dead, police have said.

Police Commissioner Don McKenzie said the prisoners had escaped custody on the Caribbean island of Grenada on the 18 February and the following day commandeered a catamaran named Simplicity – with Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry on board.

“Information suggests that while travelling between Grenada and St Vincent, they disposed of the occupants,” Commissioner McKenzie said.

The couple was last seen on the night the prisoners escaped and their boat was later tracked leaving the Grenada late at night at an unusual speed.

Police in St Vincent and the Grenadines captured the three fugitives on Wednesday, he said, adding that a team from Grenada had been dispatched to collaborate on “having a complete and thorough investigation of the matters at hand”.

The island nations are separated by about 85 nautical miles.

Ron Mitchell, 30, Trevon Robertson, 19, and 25-year-old Abita Stanislaus were being held at the South Saint George Police Station near Grenada’s southwestern tip on charges of robbery with violence, when they escaped.

Mitchell also faces counts of rape, attempted rape and indecent assault.

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Police from St Vincent said in a statement they had discovered the ship with no bodies but items strewn across the deck and possible blood on board.

On Monday the suspects appeared in court in St Vincent on four immigration counts, to which they pleaded guilty, and they had been remanded into custody with sentencing set for 4 March.

St Vincent Police Superintendent Junior Simmons said that though the couple are presumed dead, “the investigation and search for the missing persons continues.”

Farmers in Brussels have sprayed police with manure and pelted them with bottles and eggs to protest what they say is the increasing unsustainability of their jobs.

Tyres were set alight, and roads blocked with tractors, “causing gridlock in the city centre”, in demonstrations timed to coincide with a nearby meeting of EU agriculture ministers to discuss their concerns.

Monday’s clashes are the latest in a series of rallies and demonstrations by farmers across Europe.

Brussels police said that 900 tractors had entered the city, many heading for the European Council building where the ministers were gathered.

Officers in riot gear, some behind concrete barriers and barbed wire, fired water cannons and tear gas at protesters as they defended the EU’s headquarters.

Protesters in turn set off noisy fireworks, filling the air with smoke.

The farmers are angry at what they say is the slow death of working the land, killed off by red tape and competition from cheap imports made in countries that don’t have the EU’s relatively high standards.

They lined up scores of tractors down main roads leading to the city’s European quarter, stopping traffic and blocking public transport.

A few tractors forced their way through one barrier, sending panicked officers running.

Marieke Van De Vivere, a farmer from northern Belgium, said: “We are getting ignored.”

Another said simply: “Agriculture. As a child you dream of it, as an adult you die of it.”

Sky correspondent Adam Parsons, in the Belgian capital, pointed to the front line of what he called “quite violently-minded protesters who’ve been locked in running street battles with police”.

Police operating a nearby water cannon had, he said, shot “hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water in their [protesters’] direction.”

He said he saw protesters throwing eggs, and dozens of fireworks, at officers, while their tractors had “brought gridlock to the centre of Brussels.

“Farmers say their jobs are becoming unsustainable, costs are going up, but the prices they receive are staying the same, and they can’t deal with cheap imports from places like Ukraine or trade agreements.

“The price of diesel is going up and governments across Europe are doing nothing to help.”

Their anger “has spilled over into peaceful, but noisy, protests,” he said.

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Farmers from across Spain blew whistles, rang cowbells and beat drums and in Poland, farmers blocked the road at a border crossing with Germany.

France, Spain, the Netherlands and Bulgaria have been hit by protests in recent weeks as political parties campaign for Europe-wide elections in June.

It has already had results. Earlier this month, the EU’s executive branch shelved an anti-pesticide proposal in a concession to the farmers, who make up an important voting constituency.