Mystery about whereabouts

Suddenly gone! Kremlin transfers political prisoners

Ilya Yashin has disappeared.

(Bild: AFP/Alexander NEMENOV)

Since the invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has brutally restricted freedom of speech. Anyone who speaks out against the war must expect draconian punishments and mistreatment. Now there is increasing news of an unusual transfer of political prisoners. 

The prominent opposition politician Ilya Yashin has now also been taken away from prison camp number three in the Smolensk region in an unknown direction, according to his lawyer Tatyana Solomina. Independent Russian media had previously also reported on the transfer of other political prisoners.

Prison sentences for criticism
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were a total of six known transfers, including the human rights activist Oleg Orlov from the organization Memorial and the artist Alexandra Skochilenko.

All of them are opponents of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and received long sentences. The West had criticized the sentences as arbitrary justice and demanded the release of the prisoners.

According to reports, the former heads of the regional staff of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in custody, were also taken to other unknown locations. According to reports, neither lawyers nor relatives had any information about where Liliya Chanysheva and Xenia Fadeeva are.

The death of Navalny, who was transferred to a prison camp in the Arctic region and died there, has raised concerns about the prisoners imprisoned for their anti-Kremlin views.

Talk of a "great exchange"
"It seems that we are facing a very big exchange with the Americans (and not only there)," writes political scientist Tatyana Stanovaya in her Telegram news channel. She did not elaborate on her statement, but posted the message amid increasing news about the disappearance of imprisoned Kremlin opponents.

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, who has been criticized for using political prisoners as hostages to free Russians from Western prisons, has recently repeatedly declared his willingness to make an exchange.

Putin is also holding US journalists
The US wants to secure the release of "Wall Street Journal" correspondent Evan Gershkovich, who was convicted of espionage. Kremlin leader Putin is particularly interested in a Russian imprisoned in Germany who was convicted of murder in Berlin's Tiergarten park.

Evan Gershkovich has lost a lot of weight.

(Bild: AP)

Meanwhile, news has come from Belarus that the authorities are considering a petition for clemency from a German sentenced to death. According to reports from state media in Minsk, ruler Alexander Lukashenko was informed about the case. There had previously been speculation that the German could be exchanged for the "Tiergarten murderer".