"An infinite number"

Navalny team hopes for new prisoner exchanges

The Russian opposition activist Ilya Yashin was released in the prisoner exchange between the West and Russia.

(Bild: AP/Michael Probst)

The Navalny team has worked on the list for the prisoner exchange between the West and Russia (see video above). This was announced by fellow campaigner Maria Pevchikh. She hopes that this will be repeated "an infinite number of times".

Pevchikh and other Navalny comrades-in-arms had traveled to Cologne to receive the released opposition members. Among them is politician Ilya Yashin, who was seen in a photo in prison clothing. He announced that he would soon reveal more about the exchange. It was initially unclear whether the released prisoners would remain in Germany, where the Navalny team is also active, or whether they would move to their home base in the Baltic states.

Leonid Volkov from the Navalny team

(Bild: AFP/Ina Fassbender)

Ilya Yashin

(Bild: AP/Michael Probst)

Navalny's death increased pressure?
Fellow campaigner Leonid Volkov, who had also traveled to Cologne, said that Navalny should also have been replaced in this way. The death of the Putin opponent had increased the pressure on the West to go through with the exchange and take action. Otherwise, it could have been too late for other political prisoners. Above all, Putin had pushed for the release of the "zoo murderer" Vadim Krasikov, whom he received with a hug in Moscow on Thursday evening.

Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, thanked US Vice President Kamala Harris for helping to organize the exchange. The release of eight political prisoners from Russia was primarily thanks to Germany, said Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev. There had been initial negotiations about exchanging Krasikov for Navalny, and after his death, eight people were demanded for the murderer. "And they pushed it through."

Germany then took the morally important position and said: 'We will continue to pursue this exchange, but Putin must now pay a much higher price. Instead of one person for the killer, we now demand eight. And they got their way.

Journalist Christo Grozev

Grozev said he had been involved in the exchange for two years. According to human rights groups, there are still around 700 political prisoners in Russian prisons. Some even speak of more than 1000.