One of the Russian dissidents involved in Thursday’s prisoner exchange, Ilya Yashin, declared on Friday that he did not desire his freedom if it meant leaving his homeland.
“I will never make peace with the role of an emigrant,” said Yashin, 41.
“The Russian Constitution bans sending a citizen of the Russian Federation abroad without his consent. As a Russian citizen, I confirm that I do not give permission to be sent outside of Russia.”
“They made it clear that my return would block any potential exchanges of any other political prisoners for the foreseeable future,” Yashin said, stressing that others in poorer health deserved his spot in the exchange.
“It is unbearable to think that I am free because I was exchanged for a killer,” Yashin said, referencing Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted in Germany of assassinating a former Chechen separatist in Berlin in 2019.
“Since my first days in prison, I have said I do not want to be included in any exchange,” Yashin stated.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, 42, who survived two poisoning attempts and imprisonment, remarked, “After spending a year in solitary confinement, I wasn’t sure I was still able to speak in any language.”
“I was certain I was going to die in Putin’s prison,” he said, revealing his unawareness of the exchange until the morning of the flight when he saw Yashin and Pivovarov on the bus.
“I said I don’t consider Putin to be the legitimate president of my country. I consider him to be a usurper and a murderer. I will not admit any guilt because I am not guilty of anything,” Kara-Murza shared his intended response to signing a pardon statement.
“The guard was surprised I didn’t have any civilian clothes, and I asked him what I would need them for, to go to the theater?” Kara-Murza joked.
Kara-Murza said, referring to Krasikov’s release, “We know this was not a simple decision for the German government.
“Easy decisions are only possible in an autocracy.”
“I told him, ‘I am a historian by education, and I don’t only feel and believe, but I know that I will be back in my home country — and it will be much sooner than you think,” Kara-Murza recalled an F.S.B. officer on the flight to Ankara telling him.
