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Released Russian Activists Vow To Continue Fighting For A Free Russia

By RFE/RL August 02, 2024

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.

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.

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 the Kremlin critic, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence under harsh conditions, including months of solitary confinement, until he was released.

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 is to work to make Russia "free and democratic."

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.

"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," a reference to opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison in February.

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.

Yashin also acknowledged that the prisoner exchange represented a "difficult dilemma," adding that it "encourages Russian President Vladimir 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 and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-kara-murza-yashin- pivovarov-relased-freedom/33061937.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.