The Russia Report
Issue 214
From the editor
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The White House and the Kremlin were both celebrating yesterday as they implemented a mass prisoner exchange that had been in the works for months, and was supposed to include Alexei Navalny before he died in prison on Feb. 16. Joe Biden depicted the exchange as a triumph of diplomacy that had brought home US citizens Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan, and Vladimir Putin rolled out a red carpet at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to welcome back convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov and numerous spies and other criminals.
Prisoners released in the exchange talked to their relatives in the Oval Office
On a human level it is impossible not to be happy that innocent people have been released from prison in Russia, including several Russians who spoke out against the war. An objective assessment of the deal is more complicated. Firstly, none of the hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia were released, and the list of Russian political prisoners was apparently compiled by exiled members of Navalny’s team. Secondly, Biden had promised Krasikov to Putin in return for Navalny, but after Navalny “died” the US president agreed to return the Berlin Tiergarten assassin to Russia anyway. Krasikov shot Georgian citizen and former fighter for Chechnya Zelimkhan Khangoshvili dead in the park in broad daylight in August 2019.
Thirdly, Putin has again learnt that he can take any number of hostages and obtain criminals back in return. He is no longer shy about praising them and promising them state awards for their loyal service. Putin handed large bouquets of flowers to the female returnees and hugged Krasikov after he stepped off the plane, despite the fact that in 2019 he had claimed that Russia had no involvement in the murder in Germany. Now he appears to be celebrating it.
The other criminals returned to Russia were Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, who were convicted of espionage in Slovenia earlier this week after posing as Argentinian citizens from 2017 and travelling around Europe bringing money to other sleeper agents; Mikhail Mikushin, an academic who posed as a Brazilian citizen in Norway; Pavel Rubtsov, who allegedly committed espionage in Poland while posing as a Spanish journalist; Roman Selevnev, convicted of hacking in the United States; Vladislav Klyushin, convicted of conspiracy, wire fraud and security fraud in the United States; and Vadim Konoshchenok, accused in the United States of providing US-made electronics and ammunition to the Russian military.
On the positive side, US green card holder Vladimir Kara-Murza, who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for “spreading fakes about the armed forces” and treason, told his family who were waiting in the Oval Office for news of his release that he had thought he was going to die in prison. That had seemed very possible, since the 42-year-old was previously poisoned twice for his opposition activities and suffered severe health consequences. Ilya Yashin, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in December 2022 for his comments about the Bucha massacre, was also released. Interestingly Andrei Pivovarov was included in the exchange although the Open Russia director was about to finish a four-year sentence for conducting the activities of an “undesirable organisation.”
The other prisoners released and flown from Ankara, where the exchange took place, to Cologne were Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeyeva and Vadim Ostanin from Navalny’s organisation, St. Petersburg artist Sasha Skochilenko, Memorial co-chair Oleg Orlov, and German citizens or dual Russian-German citizens Kevin Lik (a 19-year-old convicted of treason), Dieter Woronin, Patrick Schobel, German Moyzhes and Rico Krieger, who was recently sentenced to death in Belarus after being convicted of trumped-up charges and subsequently pardoned by Alexander Lukashenko. Putin issued pardons for all the prisoners who were released from Russia. Supporters of Ivan Safronov, a former journalist who is serving a 22-year sentence for treason, were unhappy that Woronin, who testified against him, was released. There were also many other Russian political prisoners who were overlooked, such as Mikhail Kriger from Moscow, a staunch Ukraine supporter, who is serving a seven-year sentence for a call to hang Putin, and Alexander Byvshev, a former teacher from Oryol Oblast who wrote poems denouncing Putin and supporting Ukraine, who is also serving a seven-year sentence.
It is remarkable that Russia has followed the Cold War tradition of expelling its own citizens to the West in an exchange. It is unclear whether they would ever be able to return to their home country if they wanted to. They will now face the enormous challenges of adapting to their new lives and perhaps losing their sense of purpose, which has been a common issue for people who dedicated themselves to resisting the Kremlin and were forced to flee the country. Sadly opposition from exile is almost completely ineffective. We should always remember that the real fight against Russian fascism is taking place in Ukraine, and with most of the foreign hostages now home, perhaps we can focus more than ever on that.
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Block of flats collapses in household gas explosion in Nizhny Tagil
Four people, including two children, were killed when a block of flats in Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk Oblast, collapsed due to a household gas explosion yesterday. About 20 others were injured and several people were still missing this morning. These disasters are a regular occurrence in Russia, where little is done to maintain dilapidated and unsafe buildings.
Two sentenced for pro-Ukraine actions
A military court has sentenced Altai resident Dmitri Seleznev to 20 years in prison for allegedly trying to poison troops. According to prosecutors Seleznev had been talking to Ukrainians on the Odnoklassiki social media platform, expressing his negative feelings about Russia’s invasion. Seleznev supposedly put a poisonous substance into water at a field kitchen, but the water was never used for cooking or drinking. He was arrested in September last year and charged with attempted treason and attempted terrorism.
A court in Veliky Novgorod has sentenced dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen Petr Opalnik to eight years in prison for allegedly working for Ukraine and planning to encourage Russian troops to surrender. Opalnik, 45, was born in Ukraine and moved to Russia in 2011, obtaining citizenship there in 2022. He worked in the town of Pestovo in construction and was arrested in January last year. Opalnik’s partner said the main prosecution witness in the closed trial on the charge of encouraging troops to surrender was the mobilised son of the accused’s ex-wife.
Ukrainian accused of fighting for Azov dies in Russian jail
Ukrainian citizen Oleksandr Ishchenko, one of 22 defendants charged by Russia with fighting for the Azov battalion, has died in jail in Rostov-on-Don while their trial was taking place. He was 55. Ishchenko was from Mariupol and was in the Ukrainian military reserves. He said that on February 27, 2022 he was called up to the Azovstal factory that the Azov battalion was defending, and he brought them water and transported injured soldiers. When he decided to return home on April 4 he was arrested by Russian forces.
Wagner contractors killed by Mali rebels
Dozens of Russian mercenaries associated with the Wagner group have been killed by Tuareg rebels in Mali, in an operation that Ukraine said was assisted by its intelligence services. The Russians had been fighting alongside government forces near Tinzaouaten in the north of the country, near the Algerian border. Among the Russians killed was Anton Yelizarov, who led the assaults against Soledar and Bakhmut in Ukraine last year.