Released Russians say swap deal was a 'difficult dilemma'

Ilya Yashin tackled a reporter's question — about whether they would receive ID cards in Germany or what their current legal situation in the country was — with humor, saying that while bureaucracy is important, "that's your life." 

"For us, there's no bureaucracy whatsoever in our lives — we understand very well that when there's political will, it will always prevail over laws and bureaucratic obstacles," Yashin said.

He went on to say he no longer had an international passport or valid ID. "When I was arrested, they (Russian security personnel) took away my Russian ID" and that he was currently in Germany with a "Russian identity card that is not even valid."

"You have to go to the internet to find out who I am," he quipped. "The situation is very extraordinary," Yashin said, before adding he was confident authorities sort the issue soon enough. 

The press conference in Bonn has finished in the mean time, although we'll continue to feed in some more information from the men's comments over a period of a little over an hour. 

If you missed it, you can watch it back here. 

Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza both said during the press conference that they refused to sign confessions or statements seeking a pardon during their detention. 

"I said, I am not going to be asked to be freed, to admit any guilt, I will not go to a person I consider a tyrant, a murderer, an enemy of his own country for a favor," Yashin said. 

"I didn't sign a condition for a pardon, but I was still pardoned. We never gave our consent [to be expelled from Russia], yet here we are," Kara-Muza said. He said he'd not signed the statement either, which "spoke of admitting guilt, ... of remorse." 

Kara-Murza also said that during his roughly two years in prison, he was allowed to speak to his wife just twice and his children only once.

Ilya Yashin said it was hard to accept that he was free "because a murderer was free" — a reference to the Russian convicted of killing a man in broad daylight in Berlin in 2019 released as part of the deal — saying that he was very sad about that.

"I am also sad that over a thousand people are still in prison," he said, naming a list of people he said ought to have been at the table with them, including Alexei Navalny's lawyers.

Ever since my first day, Yashin said he maintained that "he was not ready to be exchanged."

"I don't want to be on a list" and "will not leave Russia," he said, saying he considered himself both a citizen and a patriot.

Yashin said his prison term was a fight for "my right to live in my country" and that he "sat in prison in order for my right to speak out" and the "right to live and work in my own country."

Until the very last day, he said, he'd fought for his right to stay in Russia.  

Kara-Murza then expressed his sincere thanks to Germany and the US government  and "all of you through many years have helped to free Russian prisoners of conscience."

He said there were many more people like him who were in Russian prisons because "they have specific political view" and among those prisoners "were people who stand up against Putin's brutal war against Ukraine."

"Don't believe the lies that are disseminated by Kremlin propaganda," he told reporters.

He said he still believed in the Russian people because "I have received so many letters from people" who sent their support to him and wrote to him telling him that they were against the war in Ukraine.

The correspondence is read in Russian jails prior to delivery to prisoners, he said, meaning writing in to express support meant taking a personal risk.

Freed Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza said it is the "second time I think I'm in a film."

"I was in Siberia just a week ago" and "yesterday Lefortovo" and "we're here now on the wonderful Rhine river." 

"It's a surreal thing that is happening to us," he said.

He talked about the differences of living life in a free and democratic country like Germany versus living in Russia, where he said "bad traditions" have returned.

"The tradition of authoritarian power, the tradition of aggressive war, and the tradition revived again to not respect others' rights," Kara-Murza said.

Given this, he said it was refreshing to see the other side of the coin — namely that a free and democratic country like Germany "takes initiative to do anything they can to free political prisoners."

"Easy decisions are taken by dictators" but the "difference between dictatorship and democracy is that human life is the ultimate value of democracy," Kara-Murza said, adding, "This is not the case in a dictatorship."

Kara-Murza also listed the names of three other Russian political prisoners who were brought to Germany in years prior to this one.

Pivovarov ended by calling upon the international community to "talk to people in Russia."

He said simple things like education and visas for young Russians can help, "so Russians are not enemies outside the country." 

"All of us who are now freed and those freed before us  —  we need to support those who need our assistance."

"We should not wait," he said. "I think this is what we're going to do today. We are going to work towards having a Russia that is free and democratic."

Freed Russian opposition activist Andrei Pivovarov also expressed thanks to Germany, saying Chancellor Olaf Scholz met the group at the airport.

"I know there's still a lot of work that had to be done  —  it was really clear to all of us."

He thanked his friends for always being by his side because without the "support of dear ones, no one would be able to survive."

"Life was given to me again and it's very important," Pivovarov said.

He told reporters he believed the prisoner swap risked becoming an "encouragement" for other political prisoners in Russia.

He said that there were "thousands of people in Russian prisons" and that "I think they would be happy to hear that it's possible to be saved."

Andrei Pivovarov says "very happy to see you" as he kicks off his first public appearance since landing in Germany following the US-Russia prisoner swap.

"A couple of days ago — we were still in our little cells... and now we see all the people together in front of us"

"It leads to a lot of emotion — we are very happy. We are very grateful to everyone who has tried their best for this to happen to us."

Pivovarov also said that the exchange gave him hope for other political prisoners in Russia.

DW reporter Grzegorz Szymanowski said the group who arrived in Germany following the prisoner swap were taken to a hospital at 3 a.m. local time for treatment.

They arrived in Germany Thursday night, and 15 hours after their arrival, the trio was set for their first press conference.

The three men have arrived and the event should start imminently. You can watch along live on the stream above, or on our Youtube feed here.

Freed Russian opposition figure Andrei Pivovarov's wife Tatyana Usmanova entered the room prior to the trio.

She'd expressed joy at the news last night.

"God, it is such happiness! I cried so much when I found out. And later, too. And I'm about to cry again now, as well," she wrote on Facebook after she found that her husband had been freed. 

DW's Christian Trippe is attending the press conference in Bonn. Asked how it came to pass that the three Russian dissidents were to speak at DW, he explained that it had begun with an interview request. 

"Today, a reporter of Deutsche Welle approached them to ask for an interview. And then they asked us if we could help out with some facilities, with some rooms, so that they could meet with the German and international media to tell their story," Trippe said. 

Trippe said he expected the three dissidents to "give us a firsthand account of what they went through in Russian prisons and Russian labor camps."

The trio had flown into Cologne/Bonn Airport, not far from here, after their exchange in Ankara.

Three Russian political prisoners who were freed in the swap between the US and Russia on Thursday will be at Deutsche Welle to speak with journalists.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin and Andrei Pivovarov are scheduled to appear at 18:30 local time (1630 GMT/UTC).

Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author and historian who has been imprisoned in Russia since April 2022. He was convicted of treason last year for denouncing the war in Ukraine. He was sentenced to 25 years on charges including "treason." 

Ilya Yashin, a prominent Russian opposition figure, was sentenced in 2022 to eight-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted on charges stemming from his criticism of the Kremlin's action in Ukraine.

He was one of the few prominent opposition figures to have stayed on in Russia after President Vladimir Putin intensified a crackdown on dissent following the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Andrei Pivovarov is a former director of Open Russia, a now-defunct opposition group linked to longtime Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was also freed from Russian incarceration in a prisoner swap brokered by Germany years ago.

Pivovarov was hauled off a plane at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport as it was preparing to take off and fly to Poland in June 2021. He's been held in prison since and was sentenced to four years in 2022.

A prisoner swap between Russia and the West was completed Thursday night, with American, German, and Russian leaders each welcoming freed prisoners home.

Among the most high-profile detainees to be freed in this deal — which is the largest prisoner swap in the post-Soviet era — is Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

He was released with fellow American Paul Whelan, who had been in prison for almost six years after his arrest in 2018 in Moscow. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020 on espionage charges he and the US government deny.

But to make the deal happen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had to make a key decision.

The German state had to give up convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national who was serving a life sentence for having murdered a former Chechen militant in broad daylight in a Berlin park in 2019.

The exchange involved complex negotiations at a time when US-Russia relations are severely strained following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But the exchange showed that some channels of communication were still open.

In total, 12 German nationals and Russian political prisoners have returned to Germany following the swap. 

They are: Dieter Voronin, Kevin Lick, Rico Krieger, Patrick Schoebel, Herman Moyzhes, Ilya Yashin, Liliya Chanysheva, Kseniya Fadeyeva, Vadim Ostanin, Andrey Pivovarov, Oleg Orlov and Sasha Skochilenko.

Four people returned to the US, and eight to Russia.

rm/msh (Reuters, AP)