Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who is serving an 8 1/2-year prison term for his criticism of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, says he will not agree to get exchanged for Russian citizens jailed in the Western countries if such a proposal occurs.
In his interview to Dozhd TV, parts of which were published on Telegram on June 12, Yashin said a possible swap would mean emigration for him, which he called "unacceptable" for him.
"I have stayed in Russia to be a Russian voice against the war and dictatorship. And, of course, it is important for me to share the fate of my country and my people. I sincerely believe that a Russian politician must be with Russia, as we say, both in joy and sorrow," Yashin said.
Talking about the self-exiled widow of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, Yashin said her role is "to explain to the world and the Western leaders that the Russian people and Putin are not the same, that our compatriots are in fact hostages in the hands of the Kremlin junta."
The former municipal lawmaker also called on ordinary Russians "not to throw themselves under the tank that is speeding up toward them."
"Just remember that sooner or later that tank will stop, and then we have to be ready to disassemble it," Yashin said.
Yashin, 40, is an outspoken Kremlin critic and one of the few prominent opposition politicians who stayed in Russia after a wave of repression against those who have condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine since the full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022.
The sentence handed to Yashin in December 2022 was the harshest among the cases against those charged with discrediting Russia's armed forces under a new law introduced days after the invasion commenced.
The criminal case against Yashin was launched in July 2022. The charge against him stemmed from his YouTube posts about alleged crimes committed by the Russian military in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
Yashin is serving his prison term in correctional colony No. 3 in the western Smolensk region.