A dissident freed by Russia within the largest prisoner swap because the Chilly Conflict has vowed to return to the nation in the future.
Vladimir Kara-Murza advised the BBC he initially thought he was being “led out to be executed” when jail officers arrived to get him in Siberia final month.
It was solely after being moved to Moscow that the twin British-Russian citizen realised he was one in every of 24 prisoners to be freed within the change – together with a Kremlin hit man.
However in his first joint interview together 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 aircraft 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 mentioned, ‘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 mentioned, ‘Look, man, I’m a historian, I don’t simply suppose, I don’t simply imagine, I do know that I’ll be again dwelling in Russia, and it’s going to occur a lot before you’ll be able to think about’.”
Mr Kara-Murza, one of many Kremlin’s most vocal critics, was held in solitary confinement in a excessive safety jail after receiving a 25-year sentence in April 2023 on expenses of excessive treason.
‘Thought I used to be being executed’
Recalling the times earlier than the large Russia-West prisoner swap, he mentioned: “I used to be asleep and all of a sudden 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 mentioned 3am. And so they advised me to stand 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 an alternative of the close by wooden, they took me to the airport, handcuffed with a jail convoy, boarded me on a aircraft and flew me to Moscow.”
Wall Road Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan had been additionally launched by Russia within the change.
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 Conflict 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 International Secretary David Lammy – and he’s now urging Western governments to present stronger backing to Ukraine.
He’s pushing for the discharge of 1000’s 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 discuss their reunion, their household and the second 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 circumstances, he’s but once more alive and comparatively wholesome with us,” she mentioned.
Watch the total interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One and iPlayer at 9am.