Three of the Russian activists freed in a prisoner swap orchestrated by the United States and Russia thanked all those who helped secure their release and cautioned against believing that all Russians support the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, Andrei Pivovarov, and Ilya Yashin, who were imprisoned in Russia for expressing their opposition to the war, spoke on August 2 at a news conference in Bonn, Germany, a day after being freed in the historic exchange.
All three said they would continue to keep fighting for a free and democratic Russia and would also work to secure freedom for the hundreds of political prisoners still held in Russia.
“These are our fellow citizens who, like all of us, oppose the cruel, criminal, aggressive war that the Putin regime unleashed against Ukraine,” Kara-Murza said.
The Kremlin critic -- who had been serving a 25-year prison sentence under harsh conditions, including months of solitary confinement -- said that, before he was suddenly moved out of his Siberian prison, he was asked multiple times to request clemency from President Vladimir Putin, but he refused, telling the penal authorities he did not consider Putin to be the legitimate president of Russia. He also called Putin a "dictator, usurper, and murderer."
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Released Russian Prisoner Kara-Murza Says He Refused To Sign Clemency Request
A few days later he was told his comments had been recorded on video and he was told to write an explanation, which he did, accusing Putin outright of being responsible for the deaths of Boris Nemtsov in 2015, opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison in February, and thousands of Ukrainians who have died in the war, including children. After signing the paper he said he expected to be shot dead.
He said it was "very difficult to shake [the feeling] of absolute surrealism of what was happening" when he found out he was being freed.
Kara-Murza, a dual Russian-British citizen, said 16 lives had been saved in the prisoner swap, which also freed U.S. citizens Alsu Kurmasheva, Evan Gershkovich, and Paul Whelan, who arrived in the United States late on August 1 to be reunited with family members.
To win their release, the United States and several of its allies released eight Russian citizens who had been convicted of various crimes, including murder. FSB Colonel Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a former Chechen fighter in Berlin, was the most high-profile among the eight.
Kara-Murza said the difference between dictatorships and democracies is that in a democracy human life is sacred. He also urged the world to distinguish between Russia's people and its president.
"There are many people in Russia who are against the war, who don't believe Kremlin propaganda," said Kara-Murza.
Pivovarov also thanked everyone who helped in facilitating the exchange and cautioned against associating the Russian people with the government's policies. He said the task for him and the other freed dissidents was to "make our country free and democratic, and get all political prisoners released."
Yashin expressed a different view, saying he was bitter about being deported and had stated his wish to return to Russia after landing in Turkey.
SEE ALSO: Kurmasheva, Gershkovich, Whelan Back In U.S. After Prisoner Swap With Russia"I did not give my consent to being sent outside of Russia," he told reporters in an address in which the anger often showed on his face. "What happened on August 1 is not an exchange. This is my expulsion from Russia against my will. My first wish in Ankara was to buy a ticket and go back to Russia."
But he said an FSB officer told him that if he returned to Russia "your days will end like Navalny's."
He said he was also told there would be no more prisoner swaps if he returned.
Describing himself as a “Russian patriot,” Yashin said he would continue his political activity and his work for a free Russia, though he said he didn't yet know how.
SEE ALSO: The Prisoner Swap: What's In It For Putin?Yashin also acknowledged that the prisoner exchange represented a "difficult dilemma," adding that it encourages Putin to take more hostages."
But Pivovarov said the prisoner swap saved those released from death, while Kara-Murza said that until August 1 he was certain he would die in a Russian jail. He added that he knows that someday he will return to Russia and that the day will come when Russia is free.
With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters