Russian oppositionist and former political prisoner Ilya Yashin, who was one of the prisoners exchanged between Russia and the West and who is currently in Germany, tells DV about his first days of freedom, about his plans from now on and about how Europe can help the Russian opposition.
DV: What are your impressions of the first weeks of freedom in Berlin?
Ilya Yashin: Emotions are contradictory. The air of freedom is intoxicating. After two years in prison, it's a very nice feeling to be able to go wherever you want. Being able to eat what you want and when you want. Being able to see your family and hug your friends. Being able to just pick up the phone and call someone - without permission.
But on the other hand, the feeling of being free and my friends still behind bars feels like a hammer blow to my head. It's hard. Sometimes I feel like a passenger without a ticket who has taken someone else's seat on the plane. I realize it's not my fault. But the feeling is painful.
DV: What are your plans from now on?
Ilya Yashin: I'm not ready to talk about it - not because I don't want to, but because I don't know. Emigration is a new experience for me. Before that I was an opposition politician in Russia, I was an opposition politician in prison. And now I am an opposition politician abroad. I still don't understand how it is possible to be an opposition politician abroad.
DV: And what is it like to be a politician in prison?
Ilya Yashin: You have seen me in prison. I turned the rostrum of the court into a political rostrum. That was my strategy - every trial was a grandstand. At the court hearings, I spoke not about the criminal case, but about the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. I called Putin a war criminal. In my last speech before the sentencing, I spoke about the war crimes in Bucha and called for the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine. In the administrative courts, I proved that the status of "foreign agent" it has nothing to do with me. I insisted that I was a Russian patriot. I criticized Vladimir Putin and the war against Ukraine. In today's Russia, the court remains almost the last place where you can speak freely. I tried to use this grandstand. I realized that what is said in prison carries much more weight than words spoken in a Berlin cafe.
DV: Aren't you afraid that interest in you may decrease now?
Ilya Yashin: I am afraid of several things. First, I am afraid of losing the feeling of my country. Because I have often seen that when people go abroad, they lose touch with their country and start talking about things that have nothing to do with it.
It is about the fact that at some point people begin to oppose not Putin's regime, but their country as such - when they go abroad, they are already offended not only by Putin, but by the whole people and your country. I don't want this. I would like to be a representative of my people and protect their interests.
DV: After he was released, Vladimir Kara-Murza stated that Western sanctions should not be directed against the entire Russian people and against the whole of Russia, but against the political regime. In response, the Lithuanian foreign minister commented that the sanctions should also affect ordinary Russians, because "ordinary Russians" they kill ordinary Ukrainians.
Ilya Yashin: Sanctions should primarily hit Putin's military machine and deter military aggression. They should be directed against Putin and against all those who help him.
DV: And how can the West help the Russian opposition?
Ilya Yashin: The main thing that can be done for the Russian opposition is to save Ukraine. Because if Europe allows Putin to subjugate Ukraine, it will hit the entire European security system and create big problems for most European countries. Because he won't be satisfied with Ukraine alone - appetite comes with eating and Putin won't just stop. He will go even further. There are a number of similar examples in history.
DV: Was Alexei Navalny's return to Russia a mistake?
Ilya Yashin: Navalny returned to Russia for the same reasons why I refused to leave until the end. Both Navalny and I perfectly understood that in order to change Russia, you have to be in the country. My priority is to influence public opinion inside Russia.
DV: What gives you hope that this will change in our lifetime?
Ilya Yashin: First of all, the conviction that I am right. I know that the values I am fighting for are the values of progress. The values of humanism, freedom and justice. These are values that bring good and light to people. Realizing this gives me strength. And secondly - the people. I see how many people in Russia share my views. During the two years in prison I received about 30,000 letters and postcards, almost all from Russia. And even here, in exile, I see how many normal Russians there are. More than 3,000 people came to a meeting with the opposition in Berlin alone.
I believe in my people. They deserve better conditions than those offered by Putin's military today. I will do everything to free my people and give them the opportunity to live normally.
DV: What is the main thing you learned about Russia during your time in prison?
Ilya Yashin: I realized that one can and should talk to people. And that you shouldn't look down on people. You shouldn't be afraid of people, you should go to them. All this talk about how we are the elite, how we know better what the people need - with this attitude you cannot change Russia. To change the country, you have to talk to the people and present your point of view.
The war in Ukraine is not an ethnic conflict - it is a struggle between freedom and tyranny, between humanism and misanthropy. The front line runs not only through Ukraine, but also through Russia, where people are imprisoned and sometimes killed. This is a global confrontation. Vladimir Putin is the leader of the forces of darkness. I am a representative of the forces of progress and humanism.
Author: Vladimir Esipov