Ilya Yashin, Andrey Pivovarov and Vladimir Kara-Murza have been released from prison without any documents. This became clear from their press conference in Germany.
"There are many people in Russia who are against the war and do not believe the Kremlin's propaganda," said Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was detained in 2022 and was serving a 25-year sentence, at a press conference in the German city of Bonn.
"Both tsarism at the beginning of the 20th century and the Soviet regime at the end of the 20th century collapsed in three days. I tell you absolutely categorically that the next time will be the same and the big political changes in our country will come abruptly and suddenly. It is very important not only for our society to think about and prepare for these changes, but also for the free world to understand them.
In conclusion, Kara-Murza expressed confidence that one day Russia will become a "normal democratic country".
He indicated that he would campaign for Western sanctions to primarily affect the Putin regime, not ordinary Russians.
Journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza also stated that he and former Moscow municipal deputy Ilya Yashin refused to write pardon requests to Vladimir Putin.
"Yet we are sitting here when the decrees were signed," he said.
According to him, no one asked the convicts for their consent to the exchange.
Yashin said that a few days before the exchange, Russian officials came to him in prison with an offer to write a request for clemency.
"I said I will not write a request for clemency because I do not consider it possible to address President Putin, whom I consider a tyrant and illegitimate," he said. According to him, after that he guessed about the possible exchange, but continued to refuse to write a petition.
On the day before the exchange, according to Yashin, he wrote a written application to the head of the investigative detention center in Lefortovo, where he was brought, that he "does not agree to be expelled" outside Russia. In this regard, he stated that he considered the exchange an "illegal expulsion" from the country against his will.
Yashin also stated that he did not have valid identification documents, having been identified "on the Internet" at the German airport. Kara-Murza said they showed him release certificates, which are issued to all those who have served their sentences, and promised to give them to him on the plane, but this did not happen. Kara-Murza also said that the exchange participants entered Germany with Russian passports and that no one issued them foreign passports.
Yashin adds that he was "clearly and distinctly" informed of the consequences of his return to Russia: this would "preclude any exchange of political prisoners in the foreseeable future". According to him, the former deputy from the Krasnoselsk municipal district of Moscow Alexei Gorinov (Yashin was also elected from the same district) and Daniil Kholodny, the technical director of the YouTube channel of Alexei Navalny's team, were on the exchange list "until the last moment" ; they have been "crossed out" and now Yashin says he feels "responsible" about their fate.
BBC Russia correspondent Ilya Barabanov asked the participants in the press conference whether they had time to discuss with German representatives what status they will have in the EU and how they will deal with bureaucratic issues.
"There is no bureaucracy in our life,", answered Yashin. If there is political will, it dominates any bureaucratic obstacles, he noted.
According to Yashin, he currently does not have a single document to prove his identity.
Yashin said that the day before the release, he asked German foreign ministry officials questions about the documents and legalization in Europe, and they promised to "figure something out".
"The main question I had was: are they going to deport us and arrest us," Yashin said. According to him, the German diplomats assured him that he did not need to worry about it.
Andrei Pivovarov added that the exchange participants were shown certificates from the colony at the pre-detention center, but no one was given them.
"Nobody has release documents", confirmed Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The deal would have included the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian sentenced to life in prison by a German court
He expressed hope that the European leadership will find "some original ways" to help people who have inadvertently found themselves in a similar situation.
Ilya Yashin recalled that Putin, like any dictator, fills prisons with innocent people in order to instill fear or use them as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.
Andrei Pivovarov recalled that Russians should not be associated with Putin's regime. "There is fear in the country. "Not everyone is ready to bear what happened to the three of us," Andrey Pivovarov summed up.
Yashin adds that he was "clearly and distinctly" notified of the consequences of his return to Russia: this would "preclude any exchange of political prisoners in the foreseeable future". He also expressed concern that the exchange would encourage Putin to take more Western citizens and Russian dissidents hostage.
Kara-Murza said he was subjected to mental harassment in prison, where he spent more than two years. During all this time he was only allowed to speak to his wife once and to his children twice.
"It is wrong to make an association between the Russian people and the policies of the government,", Andrey Pivovarov said for his part. According to him, the goal of the activists was to make Russia "free and democratic". country.