People freed by Russia involved in the prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries addressed the press in Bonn on Friday.
The Russian dissidents released in the largest prisoner swap between East and West since the Cold War They held a press conference on Friday in Bonn (Germany).
The prisoners, who had been released the day beforethey talked about the details of the exchange, their feelings after the release and their plans for the future.
“Realizing that you have been released because a murderer has been released is difficult,” he said. Ilya Yashinprominent opposition politician and Kremlin critic who He was serving a sentence of eight and a half years for criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. “I feel a very heavy burden because my colleagues are still behind bars.”
Yashin, a former member of a Moscow municipal council, was one of the few opposition activists acquaintances who remained in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. He has said that I didn’t want to be tradedarguing that the voice of a Kremlin critic is more powerful in Russia than outside.
“Above all I want to go home now. “The first wish, when I found myself in Ankara, when I found myself in Germany, the first wish was to go immediately to the airport, get a ticket and return to Russia.”
Yashin added that the Russian intelligence officer who accompanied him on the flight to Ankara told him that If he returned to Russia he would be arrested y “He would end his days like (Alexei) Navalny“.
He stated that all of them “will definitely continue to participate in political activities,” despite the risks.
The difficulty of an exchange of this magnitude
The exchange poses a difficult dilemma, according to Yashin, as he believes it encourages Putin to take more hostages. Vladimir Kara-Murzaa citizen with dual Russian and British nationality and prominent opposition politician who was declared guilty of treason and other charges and sentenced to 25 yearsdeclared that, during the more than two years he spent in prison, he was only able to speak to his family three times.
“They beat not only us, but also our families. And they do it on purpose,” said Kara-Murza. “They took us out of jail, put us on a bus, put us on a plane and sent us to Ankara,” she added, stating that Russia had exchanged him for other prisoners without his consent.
He highlighted that hundreds of Russians remain in prison for opposing the war in Ukraine and urged them not to believe the Kremlin’s propaganda. Columnist for ‘The Washington Post’, Kara-Murza was awarded this year’s Pulitzer Prize.
Before the exchange, he was serving 25 years in a penal colony in the Siberian city of Omsk for a conviction for treason generally considered politically motivated, after being arrested in April 2022.
Kara-Murza fell ill in 2015 and 2017 due to near-fatal poisonings for which he blamed the Kremlin, and his wife said that his health deteriorated during his stay in prison due to these poisonings.
During the first press conference since their release, the political prisoners shared that They had refused to formally request Putin’s pardon.
Therefore, they argue that were expelled from Russia against the Constitution, which prohibits deportations of Russian citizens without their consent.
“The day will surely come when Russia becomes a free, normal and civilized European country, and I have no doubt that that day will come. Let us do everything in our power to get closer to that day,” Kara argued. Murza.
Russia freed 15 people in the exchange, journalists, political activists, and American and German citizens, most of whom had been imprisoned on charges widely considered politically motivated. At the same time, eight people were returned to Russia.
