Two opponents fear that the agreement will encourage Vladimir Putin to take new “hostages”, and deplore that their opinion was not sought before making them leave Russia.
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Was this exchange a good idea? Several Russian opponents of Vladimir Putin, released as part of an agreement that allowed the release of 26 detainees in Russia and five Western countries, tempered the ambient enthusiasm, Friday, August 2.
The exchange allowed to “save sixteen human lives”said Vladimir Kara-Mourza, who “don’t think there is anything more important in this world”. But at the same time, the fierce Russo-British critic of the Kremlin stressed that he had not been consulted before being included in the agreement: “No one asked us for our consent. We were taken out of prison, put on a bus, put on a plane and sent to Ankara.”
He also found that the exchange represented “a drop in the ocean (…), because so many innocent people who have never committed a crime in their lives are being held, suffering torture (…) in Putin’s prisons for the sole crime of telling the truth”. “I said from the first day behind bars that I was not ready for the exchanges”echoed the other Russian opponent Ilya Yashin, during the same press conference in Bonn, Germany.
Ilya Yashin, who believed that his place was in Russia, even considered dangerous the concessions accepted by the West to obtain these releases – notably the release of Vadim Krassikov, an FSB agent convicted of murder in Germany. “In exchange for the release of a murderer, about fifteen innocent people were released. It is a difficult dilemma. It encourages Putin to take other hostages.”Ilya Yashin said.
