Yevgenia Kara-Murza, the wife of imprisoned Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, has said she would support a possible prisoner swap between Russia and the West to save her husband and other political prisoners in Russia whose lives might be in danger.
Her statement came after the suspicious death of outspoken Kremlin critic and opposition politician Aleksei Navalny in a Russian Arctic prison last month.
Navalny's team said earlier that they had found out that a deal on Navalny's possible release as part of a prisoner swap was almost reached days before Russian authorities announced his death on February 16.
"When human lives are at stake, all possible means must be used to save these people's lives," Yevgenia Kara-Murza told reporters in Geneva on March 25, adding that prisoner exchanges had been used during the Cold War to liberate imprisoned Soviet dissidents.
Yevgenia Kara-Murza also said she was not aware of any ongoing negotiations on a possible prisoner swap between Russia and the West at the moment.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, 42, who holds Russian and British passports, was initially arrested in April 2022 after returning to Russia from abroad and charged with disobeying a police officer.
He was later charged with discrediting the Russian military, a charge stemming from Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and a Kremlin push to stamp out criticism of the subject. He was later additionally charged with treason over remarks he made in speeches outside Russia that criticized Kremlin policies.
In April last year, Kara-Murza was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Kara-Murza fell gravely ill on two separate occasions in Moscow -- in 2015 and 2017-- with symptoms consistent with poisoning.
Tissue samples smuggled from Russia to the United States by his relatives were turned over to the FBI, which investigated his case as one of "intentional poisoning."
U.S. government laboratories conducted extensive tests on the samples, but documents released by the Justice Department suggest their findings were inconclusive.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the incidents but investigative reporters from Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel say they have identified four Federal Security Service (FSB) -- Roman Mezentsev, Aleksandr Samofal, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, and Valery Sukharev -- who followed Kara-Murza secretly during his trips before both times when he fell ill.