Prisoners Are Back on U.S. Soil After Release by Russians

Friends and family of the Russian dissidents freed in Thursday’s prisoner swap expressed joy at the prospect that they would be reunited with their loved ones — and nervousness as they contemplated the condition they might arrive in.

Tatiana Usmanova only learned that her husband, Andrei Pivovarov, a Russian opposition politician, was part of the swap when he called her from Turkey’s capital, Ankara — at 7:15 p.m. Moscow time. “Until then, I didn’t fully believe it was happening.“

They talked for 10 minutes.

“It felt so new,” she said. “We hadn’t spoken on the phone for three years and two months.“

Mr. Pivovarov is a former director of Open Russia, an organization founded by the exiled former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky that supports civil society in the country. Mr. Pivovarov was arrested in May 2021, accused of “participating in the activities of an undesirable organization.” In June 2022, he was sentenced to four years in prison.

Ms. Usmanova said that she found out on Saturday that her husband was no longer in the penal colony where he was serving out his sentence and at the time she did not understand what had happened. By Monday, when it became clear that a number of other political prisoners, including Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza had also disappeared, a sense of optimism started creeping over her.

“Honestly, it became easier for me because I started to feel hope that something good could be happening,” she said.

On Thursday, she purchased a ticket to Germany and hoped to reunite with Mr. Pivovarov, whom she married while he was behind bars, in July 2023. It would be their first time together outside of a Russian prison as a married couple. Inmates are not allowed to wear wedding rings, so she said she would be carrying her husband’s ring so that he could finally put it on.

Almaz Gatin found out that his wife, Lilia Chanysheva, was missing on Sunday when he brought a package to her. His post on the social media platform X was the first in the series of reports about Russian political prisoners disappearing. He said didn’t get his hopes up because last time Ms. Chanysheva was moved, it was for a retrial, which resulted in two more years added to her term.

Mr. Gatin said he is staying in Russia for now as he has to deal with their frozen assets, but of course he was happy. “There is a God.” he said. “In the end, you have to believe in God, love and in each other.”

Tatyana Kasatkina, the wife of Oleg Orlov, 71, an activist from one of Russia’s oldest human rights organizations, Memorial, said she was proud that her husband had withstood confinement despite his age and illness and that he “did not let prison break him.”

She had seen him in the past month, on a visit to the penal colony where he was serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for “repeatedly discrediting the Russian armed forces.” As of Thursday, Ms. Kasatkina was in Russia and was not sure when she would be reunited with her husband.

Oleg Orlov, left, a Russian activist who had been in prison before Thursday’s swap.Alexander Nemenov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Orlov has had a long career in Russia protesting war. He got his start as an activist in 1981 printing leaflets condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on a homemade printing press and posting them around Moscow. He spent subsequent decades defending the human rights of victims of Russian aggression inside and outside the country.

He decided to stay in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 even as many fled, and wrote an article comparing contemporary Russia to the society in George Orwell’s novel “1984.” Nearly a year later, he was convicted of “repeated discrediting” Russia’s armed forces. In his closing remarks, he condemned Russia’s descent into “totalitarianism” and “fascism.”

Like other family members, Ms. Kasatkina, too, said she first heard murmurs of a possible exchange on Monday, when her husband was no longer in the penal colony where he had been sent last month. Her hopes were confirmed when Mr. Orlov phoned briefly from Ankara, where the prisoner exchange took place.

“He called me so joyfully,” she said. “We spoke for about 20 seconds.” It was enough time for him to ask his wife if she knew what was happening.

“I said, ‘Of course, I have not been separated from my phone all day,’” Ms. Kasatkina said.

She added that she was proud that Mr. Orlov had not requested a pardon or admitted to any guilt.

“What he wrote to me was that if the president initiated a petition for pardon, it was not necessary,” she said. “‘I believe that I am not an enemy of Russia.’ That’s what he said.”

Author:The New York Times/p>

Link:https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/01/world/russia-prisoner-swap-us