Russian opposition activist Ilya Yashin vowed to continue his fight for peace and justice in Russia on Friday after being freed and exiled in a historic prison swap between Russia, the US and other countries. The swap, orchestrated on Thursday, saw 16 prisoners, many of them dissidents, released from Russian jails in exchange for eight Russians held in the West. Turkey was responsible for coordinating this exchange.

Yashin, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, expressed deep frustration over his deportation from Russia. He had been arrested for his outspoken criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was serving an eight-and-a-half-year sentence for “spreading false information” about the Russian military. Yashin had highlighted the atrocities which took place in Bucha, a Ukrainian town where mass graves and civilian deaths were discovered following the withdrawal of Russian troops.

In his first public appearance since his release, Yashin, alongside fellow released Russian prisoners Vladimir Kara-Murza and Andrei Pivovarov, spoke to the media in Bonn, Germany. Yashin made it clear that he had not consented to his expulsion from Russia and had refused to sign confessions or statements seeking pardon. He revealed, “I said, I am not going to be asked to be freed, to admit any guilt, I will not go to a person I consider a tyrant, a murderer, an enemy of his own country for a favor.”

Vadim Krasikov, a former Federal Security Service (FSB) colonel convicted of murder, was one of the eight Russians released by the West in the exchange. The murder, carried out in broad daylight in Berlin, involved the assassination of a former Chechen militant and had significant political ramifications. Yashin, reflecting on the implications of the exchange, expressed his anger that a murderer was freed to secure his and others’ release.

Yashin and his fellow opposition figures also reflected on the death of Alexei Navalny at the conference. Navalny, Russia’s top opposition leader, tragically died earlier this year in an Arctic prison. “The fact that Alexei Navalny is not with us is a crime committed by Putin, who bears direct responsibility for his murder,” Yashin declared.

During the conference, Yashin expressed his determination to return to Russia and fight for its liberation from Authoritarian rule. Kara-Murza echoed this sentiment, sharing a poignant moment with his FSB guard as they departed Moscow. “Look out the window; it is the last time you see your motherland,” the guard reportedly said, to which Kara-Murza replied, “I am sure that I will return to Russia—a free Russia.”