BONN, Germany (Reuters) -Russian activists who were released from prison and deported to Germany as part of the biggest prisoner exchange operation since the Cold War said they were certain that one day they would return to their homeland.
Speaking at a news conference in Bonn, three of the 16 prisoners released in exchange for seven Russian agents including a murderer, expressed gratitude to the Western governments that had made the swap happen.
Two of them, opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who had been serving a 25-year sentence, and Ilya Yashin, in prison since 2022 for criticising the invasion of Ukraine, said they had never agreed to leave their homeland.
“What happened on August 1st I don’t view as a prisoner swap, I view the operation as my illegal expulsion from Russia against my will, and I say sincerely, more than anything I want now to go back home,” Yashin told reporters in Bonn.
He added that his task, having being freed, was to continue the fight for freedom and democracy in his country. He had been told that if he attempted to return he would suffer the fate of Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison camp last year under unclear circumstances.
He added that he was certain that the swap, negotiated by the U.S. and Germany in months of secret talks with Russia, had saved the lives of several of the 16 political prisoners released.
“Other prisoners who have health issues should have been exchanged ahead of me,” Yashin said during an emotional address to reporters, at one point in which he removed his glasses and seemed to be blinking back tears.
Kara-Murza, who said he had been certain he would never see his wife again and would die in a Russian jail, recalled being asked to write an appeal for clemency to Vladimir Putin.
“I said that I consider him not to be a legitimate president, to be a dictator, a usurper and a murderer,” he said. “And that I’m not going to sign any petitions for mercy, because I’m not guilty of anything.”
His release some days later came despite that. “Nobody asked our consent… yet we’re here,” Kara-Murza said.
When the plane taking him and the other prisoners to Ankara took off, he said the agent escorting him had told him to take a good look because he would never see his homeland again.
“And I laughed,” he said. “I told him, look, I’m a historian… I don’t only feel, I don’t only believe, I know that I’ll be back in my home country. And it’ll be much quicker than you think.”
(Reporting by Andrey Sychev, Anton Zverev, Christian Lowe, Sarah Marsh, Riham Alkousaa, writing by Thomas Escritt; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Sandra Maler)
