BONN, Germany (Reuters) – Two of the Russian activists freed in a prisoner swap urged the world to distinguish between Russia’s people and its president as they thanked everyone who had helped secure their release and that of 14 other political prisoners from Russian jails.
“There are many people in Russia who are against the war, who don’t believe Kremlin propaganda,” said Vladimir Kara-Murza, who had been detained since 2022 and was serving a 25-year prison sentence until he was released on Thursday.
“It is wrong to associate Russian people with the government’s policies,” said Andrei Pivovarov, adding that their task was to work to make Russia “free and democratic.”
Acknowledging that Chancellor Olaf Scholz had made a difficult call in releasing a Russian assassin to get them released, Kara-Murza said: “This wasn’t an easy decision for Germany.”
Some of the detained prisoners’ lives had been saved by the exchange, Pivovarov added.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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