A dissident freed by Russia within the largest prisoner swap because the Chilly Struggle has vowed to return to the nation someday.
Vladimir Kara-Murza advised the BBC he initially thought he was being “led out to be executed” when jail officers got here within the night time to fetch him from Siberia final month.
It was solely after being moved to Moscow that the twin British-Russian citizen realised he was certainly one of 24 prisoners to be freed in the exchange – together with a Kremlin hit man.
However in his first joint interview along with his spouse Evgenia in Europe since they reunited, he defiantly reveals on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that he plans to return to Russia.
“When our airplane was taking off from Vnukovo airport in Moscow en path to Ankara on 1 August, the FSB [Russian Federal Security Service] officer who was my private escort sitting subsequent to me turned to me and stated, ‘Look out the window, that is the final time you are seeing your motherland’,” he advised me.
“And I simply laughed in his face, and I stated, ‘Look, man, I’m a historian, I don’t simply suppose, I don’t simply imagine, I do know that I’ll be again residence in Russia, and it’s going to occur a lot before you possibly can think about’.”
Mr Kara-Murza, one of many Kremlin’s most vocal critics, was held in solitary confinement in a high security jail after receiving a 25-year sentence in April 2023 on costs of excessive treason.
‘Thought I used to be being executed’
Recalling the times earlier than the huge Russia-West prisoner swap, he stated: “I used to be asleep and instantly the doorways to my jail cell burst open and a gaggle of jail officers barged in.
“I used to be woken up, I noticed that it was darkish, I requested what time it was, they stated 3am. And so they advised me to rise up and prepare in ten minutes.
“And at that second, I used to be completely sure that I used to be being led out to be executed.
“However as a substitute of the close by wooden, they took me to the airport, handcuffed with a jail convoy, boarded me on a airplane and flew me to Moscow.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan had been additionally launched by Russia within the alternate.
Within the West, Russian safety service hitman Vadim Krasikov was freed by Germany together with others elsewhere accused of intelligence actions.
The US, Norway, Poland and Slovenia additionally participated in what was the largest swap because the Chilly Struggle between the West and Russia ended greater than 30 years in the past.
On Friday, Mr Kara-Murza met prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and Overseas Secretary David Lammy – and he’s now urging Western governments to provide stronger backing to Ukraine.
He’s pushing for the discharge of hundreds of different political prisoners who’re nonetheless being held in Putin’s jails.
Of their interview, to be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday at 9am, he and his spouse speak about their reunion, their household and the moment they tasted freedom.
Mrs Kara Murza talks of her “immense pleasure” at having her husband again and seeing him with their three kids.
“Having survived two assassination makes an attempt and now this jail sentence, together with eleven months in solitary confinement in horrendous situations, he’s but once more alive and comparatively wholesome with us,” she stated.
Watch the total interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One and iPlayer at 9am.
