Russia secretly transfers Kremlin critics
Russia arrests and convicts citizens and foreigners who are not to the Kremlin's liking. Western states accuse it of calculation. The Kremlin is said to be trying to free Russians imprisoned in the West. Suddenly, numerous opposition figures are being transferred.
There are growing reports in Russia of unusual transfers of political prisoners. Prominent opposition politician Ilya Yashin has also been moved from penal colony number three in the Smolensk region to an unknown location, his lawyer Tatiana Solomin said. He was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Independent Russian media had previously reported on the transfer of other political prisoners.
Yashin is one of the few known Kremlin critics who remained in Russia after the start of the war. He was arrested in June 2022 and convicted of spreading false information about Russian soldiers because he reported on killed civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha on YouTube. Despite the harsh sentence, Yashin continued his criticism. His employees regularly update his social media pages with messages he spreads from prison. Yashin's YouTube channel has over 1.5 million subscribers.
As of the afternoon, there were six known transfers, including human rights activist Oleg Orlov of the Memorial organization. Orlov was co-chair of the organization awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Memorial said that Kevin Moradi, a German-born Russian, was also transferred from his prison. Moradi was sentenced to four years in prison for passing information to German authorities.
Former Navalny employees also transferred
The whereabouts of artist Alexandra Skotchencko, sentenced to seven years in prison for replacing price tags in a supermarket with messages against the offensive in Ukraine, are also unknown. All are opponents of Russia's war against Ukraine and received long sentences. The West has criticized the verdicts as judicial arbitrariness and demanded the release of the prisoners.
Other unknown locations were also reportedly taken by the former leaders of the regional offices of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Neither lawyers nor relatives had information about where Lilya Chanysheva, who worked for Navalny in Ufa, and XeniaFadeyeva from Tomsk are, according to reports. Concerns about prisoners jailed for their Kremlin-critical views have been growing, not least since Navalny was transferred to a penal colony in the Arctic region and died there.
Putin wants to free "Tiergarten murderers"
The news sparked speculation on the internet that a prisoner exchange could be imminent. "It seems we are on the brink of a very large exchange with the Americans (and not only there)", wrote Russian political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya in her Telegram channel. She did not elaborate further, but posted the message amid a growing number of reports of the disappearance of imprisoned Kremlin critics. Russian authorities often transfer prisoners without their lawyers and families knowing, and some only reappear after weeks.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, who is under fire for using political prisoners as hostages to secure the release of Russians from Western prisons, has repeatedly expressed willingness for an exchange. The U.S., for instance, seeks the release of Evan Gershkovich, a "Wall Street Journal" correspondent convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years. Putin has a keen interest in a Russian national imprisoned in Germany for a murder in Berlin's Tiergarten.
Prisoners like Ilya Yashin and Oleg Orlov, known for their opposition to Russia's war against Ukraine, have been mysteriously transferred to unknown locations. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has shown interest in a prisoner exchange, including the release of a Russian national imprisoned in Germany for a murder in Berlin's Tiergarten.
