Good morning! Those following the situation in Russia could see yesterday how miserable the ruling regime is, as they’re trading murderers and scums for honest and brave people, and true Russian patriots. On the other hand, one could witness all the nobility of the West that’s saving its own citizens from Russia.
The demise of Russia
Will our people supporting Putin ever open their eyes and see how that man made Russia into a mafia state? Will the Orthodox believers open their eyes and see that in the last twenty years Putin has been at war and occupied parts of two Orthodox countries – Georgia and Ukraine. Whatever Putin does is not enough to open the eyes of some people. Not even the fact that he kills and persecutes its own citizens. According to some estimates, over a thousand political prisoners have been imprisoned in Russia. Only a small part of them was released yesterday. More precisely replaced. Journalists, opposition politicians, civil society activists, artists were replaced by murderers, hackers and spies. Putin personally met them at the airport.
The Turks say that the exchange was coordinated by the National Intelligence Organization of Turkey (MIT), and that 26 people who were imprisoned in the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus were released.
It was reported on Flightradar24 that at 16:25 local time, a Tu-204-300 plane of the “Russia” special flight unit with flight number RA-64059 landed at Esenboga Airport in Ankara. At the same time, a US military transport plane with its transponders switched off flew to Ankara from the Ramstein military base in Germany.
According to the statement of US President Joe Biden, WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan, who were convicted in Russia for spying, returned to the country as part of the exchange.
In addition, according to Biden, Alsa Kurmasheva, a journalist of the Tatar-Bashkir service ‘Radio Sloboda’, who was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison by the Supreme Court of Tatarstan in July for “fake” information about the army, was released from prison. According to the accusation, the “lies” were contained in her book titled ‘No to war. 40 stories of Russians who oppose the invasion of Ukraine’, RBC reported.
Another participant in the exchange is opposition politician and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced by the Moscow City Court to 25 years in prison in April 2023 for treason and “lies” about the army, the US president said.
“We have managed to release 16 people in total from Russia, including five German citizens and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country,” Biden said.
According to him, those people “survived unimaginable suffering” in prison, but “today their suffering is over”.
Paul Vilana was arrested in Moscow in December 2018. In June 2020, the Moscow City Court sentenced him to 16 years of rigorous imprisonment on espionage charges. The American himself denied the accusations and called them forged.
WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg in March 2023. In July 2024, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced him to 16 years in prison on spying charges (the same article of the Criminal Code as that of Wilan). Gershkovic denied guilt as well.
Referring to the Turkish authorities, Reuters writes that as part of the exchange, the Russian opposition member Ilya Yashin, who was sentenced in December 2022 by the Municipal Court in Moscow to 8.5-year-imprisonment for “lying” about the army, was also released.
Another participant in the exchange is the pardoned German citizen Rico Krieger, who was found guilty of terrorism by a court in Belarus and sentenced to death.
19-year-old Kevin Leek — a citizen of Russia and Germany, sentenced to 4-year imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Adygea in December 2023 — was also released. Leek became the youngest Russian citizen convicted of treason.
Another participant in the exchange is the co-chairman of the ‘Memorial’ Center for Human Rights, Oleg Orlov, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison by the Golovinsky Court in Moscow in February for repeated discrediting of the Russian army.
“Oleg Orlov just called his wife from the plane — he’s flying to Cologne,” Memorial announced on its Telegram channel.
The artist Aleksandra Skochilenko, who was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Vasileostrovsky District Court in Saint Petersburg in November 2023, was also released due to her anti-war views. Skociljenko was found guilty of spreading “lies” about the army.
“Sasha called Sonya: they exchanged her and she is flying from Ankara to Cologne soon,” the Skochilenko support group posted on its Telegram channel.
The support groups of oppositionists Alexei Navalny’s colleagues Lilia Chanyisheva and Ksenia Fadeyeva also announced on Telegram channels that both women are at large.
The information about the release of Ilya Yashin was confirmed by ‘Echo of Moscow’. According to their information, the politician has already called the parents from Ankara, where the prisoner exchange happened.
Politician Andrej Pivovarov, sentenced to 4-year imprisonment by the court on the charge of carrying out the activities of an “unwanted” organization, was also released from prison. This was confirmed by his wife Tatiana Usmanova for the newspaper ‘Hlad’.
Murderer Vadim Krasikov, the Dulytsov family who came to Ljubljana to spy for Russia, fraudsters and speculators Vladislav Klyushin and Roman Seleznyov, the son of a well-known deputy of the Russian far-right party LDPR, spies Mikushin and Rubtsov, and FSB agent Vadim Konośenko were returned to Russia.
You can clearly see what Russia is today. We don’t have to say much.
That’s all for today and this week. Until Monday.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM observer and columnist
(The opinions and views of our columnists aren’t necessarily those of the CdM news team)
