Eleven Russian political prisoners through Reuters appealed to world leaders with a call for the mass release of Russian political prisoners and Ukrainian civilians held by Russia as part of any peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv. According to them, it concerns 10,000 people.
The letter was signed by former municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov, who is serving a sentence on two charges — spreading military "fakes" and "justifying terrorism", Azat Miftakhov*, who also received a second sentence for a conversation with cellmates on charges of "justifying terrorism", 19-year-old Daria Kozyreva, who received two years and eight months of imprisonment for using graffiti and Taras Shevchenko's poems in protest against the war in Ukraine. Also, Boris Kagarlitsky**, Artem Kamarin, Anna Arkhipova, Vladimir Domnin, Dmitry Pchelintsev, Andrey Trofimov*, Ilya Shakursky, and Alexander Shestun.
"In modern Russia, the concepts of justice and honesty are absent; anyone who dares to think critically can end up behind bars," the statement says. It is noted that defendants in political cases had no chance for a fair trial and were never acquitted.
The signatories indicated that along with prisoners of war, Russia holds thousands of Ukrainian civilian "hostages", mainly in territories under its control in Ukraine.
"We call on both sides of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to immediately conduct an exchange of prisoners of war and civilians according to the formula 'all for all', including Ukrainian civilian hostages," the letter says.
"There are at least 10,000 of us — Russian political prisoners and Ukrainian civilian hostages. All of us were punished for one thing — for our civic stance," wrote the political prisoners, calling for the "immediate and unconditional release of sick political prisoners who are dying in Russian prisons."
The statement of the 11 Russian political prisoners was supported by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov**.
In Muratov's message and the letter, there is an appeal to the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, the European Union, the USA, and other countries to take measures to release Russians and Ukrainians, whose only crime was their anti-war stance.
At peace talks in Istanbul last month, Russia handed Ukraine a memorandum proposing "mutual amnesty of 'political prisoners' and the release of detained civilians" as a possible condition for a ceasefire in the conflict that has been ongoing for three and a half years.
* Listed in the registry of "terrorists and extremists".
** Recognized in Russia as "foreign agents".