Western countries and Russia on Thursday, August 1, carried out the largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War. Among the 16 people released by Moscow are eight Russian opposition activists, some of them influential. But for the latter, this exile raises questions.
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The fight against the regime of Vladimir Poutine Will it have the same weight abroad? The day after their release, three of the Russian political prisoners gave a press conference in Bonn, as the question of their future arises, now that they are in exile.
When he arrived in Germany, Ilya Yashin said his first wish was to buy a ticket back to Russia. But the FSB officer accompanying him warned him that he would end up like Navalny. Former Moscow city councilor41, has always maintained that the voice of an opponent carries more political weight in his own country.
” I publicly asked not to be included in the exchange lists, I refused to leave Russia while I was under threat of arrest, because I consider myself a Russian politician, a Russian patriot and a Russian citizen whose place is in Russia, even if it is in prison, but it is in Russia.deplores Ilya Yashin. I don’t know how to do Russian politics outside of Russia. »
The politician said he would try to learn how to do politics abroad, with his priority being to help the hundreds of people still imprisoned for political reasons. He promised to meet with activists and supporters next week.
Another Kremlin critic, Vladimir Kara-Murza, has more experience abroad. He played an important role in the adoption of the Magnitsky Act by the American Congress in 2012. He intends to continue this work of influence. I think it is very important to work to ensure that the sanctions of democratic countries against the Putin regime are sanctions directed against this regime, he notes. These sanctions must be calibrated to be directed against criminals and not against ordinary Russian citizens. »
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” A drop in the ocean »
Vladimir Kara-Murza was serving a 25-year prison sentence, one of the longest for a political opponent. Yesterday’s exchange is just a drop in the ocean, because so many innocent people who have never committed a crime in their lives are being held under torture, either physically or psychologically or both, in Putin’s prisons for the sole crime of telling the truth, for the sole crime of opposing war, for the sole crime of opposing a dictator. “, he testifies.
The former prisoner was particularly close to Vladimir Putin’s opponent Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015. Vladimir Kara-Murza survived two poisoning attempts before his arrest. The politician has strongly criticized the Russian president’s regime and the war in Ukraine.
” My hope is that states, organizations, and passionate and committed individuals in the free world will not only continue to talk about the importance of human rights, the importance of human life and values, but that they will continue to act and take steps to ensure that more of these people who should never have spent a minute behind bars are free. », says Vladimir Kara-Mourza.
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Interaction with the West
Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza expressed reservations about the terms of their departure, considering that it was above all a ” illegal eviction “. Both say they did not give their consent. Some observers believe that for Moscow, the extradition of these opponents represents a way to attenuate or neutralize their voice. Abroad, a mobilization has less impact. But for the exiled Ruses political scientist, Dmitry Oreshkin, the Russian president also had another objective through this exchange.
” It was important for him and his close associates to show that he could interact with the West in its own language, the language of blackmail and threats. If what motivates Westerners is a natural and normal desire to free people and save them from death – because if we are talking about Vladimir Kara-Murza, there really was this risk – in Russia, the media controlled by the government, present this exchange as a brilliant act of intelligence, wisdom, which shows to what extent Putin controls all global processes. “, explains to RFI Dmitri Orechkine, a Russian political scientist in exile.
” But in reality he realizes that, one way or another, he will have to negotiate with the West, because his Ukrainian project is running into objective limits and therefore it will be necessary for him to negotiate with the West and, in this sense, he is preparing the ground for potential negotiations. ” he adds.
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