(1 Aug 2024)
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++PLEASE NOTE: AP IS OPERATING IN RUSSIA ACCORDING TO RUSSIAN RESTRICTIONS ON ALL REPORTING RELATED TO THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Moscow – 1 August 2024
1. Various of Kremlin
2. People walking
3. Wide of Kremlin
4. People walking
5. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexander (last name not given), Moscow resident:
"It’s a big win that political prisoners were released. But it’s just the most famous figures who were released, while many little-known are still in jail. It’s outrageous that so many people are in jail."
6. Various of people walking
7. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergei (last name not given), Moscow resident:
"Special Services are doing their job but sometimes some of them get caught. People are in absolutely different country. It’s clear that they got caught for a reason, but they shouldn’t be there for a long time. It’s good that there is parity, some people are (in jail) there and some people are here, so that we can bring people back easily."
8. Various of people walking
STORYLINE:
Russians welcomed the biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, a deal involving 24 people, many months of negotiations and concessions from other European countries who released Russians in their custody as part of the exchange.
The most infamous of the eight people Russia got back is Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted in Germany in 2021 of killing a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park two years earlier, apparently on the orders of Moscow’s security services.
It also received two alleged “sleeper” agents who were jailed in Slovenia, three men charged by federal authorities in the U.S. and two men returned from Norway and Poland.
Moscow resident Alexander was happy that Russian political prisoners were released as part of the deal, but noted that there are still many other lesser known dissidents in jail.
Another Muscovite, Sergei, praised the return of Russian prisoners saying they shouldn’t spend long sentences abroad, "It’s good that there is parity, some people are (in jail) there and some people are here, so that we can bring people back easily," he said.
The trade unfolded despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine in 2022.
Russia released 16 people, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan.
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