Putin ally warns freed prisoners to take ‘new names and disguises’

Former Russian President and close Vladimir Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev has issued a chilling warning to political dissidents freed from jails in a huge prisoner exchange with Western countries. British journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and a host of Russian citizens were released from their prison cells yesterday in return for various Russian assets jailed in the West in one of the biggest prisoner swaps since the Cold War.

But Medvedev, now the deputy chairman of Russia ‘s security council, implied those freed by the Kremlin would forever need to look over their shoulder in a thinly veiled threat. ‘Let the traitors now feverishly select new names and actively disguise themselves under the witness protection programme,’ he posted, implying that Russia’s security services may seek to assassinate them following their release.

It comes as several prisoners released by the West, including hitman Vadim Krasikov who assassinated a former Chechen independence fighter in Berlin in 2019, were welcomed back on Russian soil in a grand red carpet ceremony personally presided over by Putin. Kara-Murza, 42, told of his relief and euphoria at gaining freedom from his Siberian jail cell, where he had previously been condemned to a 25-year sentence on treason charges after protesting against Putin. ‘No word is strong enough for this,’ he told his family who were gathered with other relatives and President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. ‘I was sure I was going to die in prison. ‘I still think I am sleeping in my prison cell in Omsk instead of hearing your voice.’

There had been acute fears that Kara-Murza – who holds both UK and Russian citizenship – would die in jail in Siberia. He had warned that Putin was a ‘vengeful, cowardly, greedy old man’ who ‘still holds on with a death grip, destroying anyone in whom he sees a threat to his power. ‘He must be stopped, and only Russian society itself can do this,’ Kara-Murza declared. A number of prominent political dissidents like Kara-Murza were among those released on Thursday. Among other Russian political activists freed under the deal were Liliya Chanysheva, ex-head of Navalny’s headquarters in Ufa; Ilya Yashin, a prominent politician; Ksenia Fadeeva, ex-head of Navalny’s headquarters in Tomsk; Andrey Pivovarov, a politician; Sasha Skochilenko, an artist; and Oleg Orlov, co-chairman of Memorial human rights organisation.

Commenting on their release, Medvedev said: ‘I would like, of course, for the traitors to Russia to rot in a dungeon or die in prison, as often happened,’ but added it was necessary to free them to secure the release in kind of Russian assets. ‘It’s more useful to bring out our own people who worked for the country, for the Motherland, for all of us .’ There is reason for newly-liberated Russian dissidents to be concerned. 

In 2010, then-Russian president Medvedev pardoned Russian spy Sergei Skripal, who had been jailed for secretly spying for Britain. But this did not stop the GRU foreign intelligence service from attempting to assassinate the defector, who was poisoned with a nerve agent in the British town of Salisbury in 2018. He became seriously ill but survived, as did his daughter Yulia.

Twelve years prior to the attempt on Skripal’s life, Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital bed from acute radiation poisoning. The former FSB agent fled Russia to the UK and was granted asylum in return for advising British intelligence services, but he was targeted and killed by Russian assassins who spiked his tea with polonium-210, a highly toxic radioactive isotope.

Russian detainees released by the West received a hero’s welcome back home. A huge red carpet lined by soldiers standing to attention was seen rolled out at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to receive them as they stepped off the plane from the Turkish capital Ankara, where the swap took place.

Putin sought to maximise the public relations benefit and hugged several of the newly returned prisoners, including killer Krasikov, as they emerged. Krasikov, a Russian intelligence agent who had been serving a prison sentence imposed by a German court for killing dissident Zelimkhan Khangoshvili while he was cycling in Berlin in August 2019, was warmly embraced by the Kremlin chief.

‘The Motherland does not forget about you for a minute,’ Putin told the assembled returnees. ‘And here you are at home. All of you will be presented with state honours. ‘We’ll see you again, we’ll talk about your future. And now I just want to congratulate you on your homecoming.’

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