Ilya Yashin, one of the Russian opposition politicians traded to the West in Thursday’s prisoner exchange, expressed outrage on Friday that he had been sent into involuntary exile rather than left in his own country, even if that meant remaining in prison.
“I will never make peace with the role of an emigrant,” Mr. Yashin, 41, said at a news conference with other dissidents in Bonn, Germany.
He described a statement he wrote before he was moved from his penal colony, insisting that he did not consent to be exchanged, which he said included the declaration, “The Russian Constitution bans sending a citizen of the Russian Federation abroad without his consent.
As a Russian citizen, I confirm that I do not give permission to be sent outside of Russia.”He said he was told that if he attempted to return, he would meet the same fate as Aleksei A. Navalny, the opposition leader who died in February in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving several sentences on what Western governments and human rights groups said were trumped-up charges.
Persons:
Ilya Yashin, “, ” Mr, Yashin, ”, Aleksei A
Organizations:
Russian Federation
Locations:
Bonn, Germany, Russian, Russia