THIS IS IT
Brit Vladimir Kara-Murza feared he was being EXECUTED when he was hauled from Russian cell for swap as he breaks silence
He is now recovering in hospital in a different country
BRAVE British prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza thought he was about to be executed when he was hauled out of his cell in a Russian jail.
Instead, the 42-year-old was part of a dramatic Cold War-style prisoner swap that also saw Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich freed.
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Kara-Murza is now in Cologne undergoing a check-up and medical tests after surviving the brutal Russian prison system that almost killed him.
He has now broken his silence and said that until the last minute he did not know where he was being taken by warders.
The Russian opposition politician - who has a UK passport - feared he was “to be shot or something”, he told family friend Leonid Nevzlin.
Earlier, he told his family: “I was sure I was going to die in prison.”
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Instead he was taken to Moscow and allowed to leave Russia after Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin issued a pardon.
Another Russian political prisoner released to the West had the same feeling of terror about her fate.
A friend of Sasha Skochilenko, 33, jailed for protesting against Putin’s war in Ukraine, said the group had been helped in notorious Lefortovo jail in Moscow ahead of the exchange.
“They were given black jail robes,” said the friend.
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They were issued pardon papers but “then harsh guys in balaclavas appeared.
“They twisted the prisoners’ arms and took them towards the airport.
WSJ's Evan Gershkovich holds US flag after release from jail in prisoner swap 491 DAYS after wrongful arrest in Russia
“They didn’t understand if this was actually an exchange, or if they were driven to be shot…
“They spoke in a horrendous manner to the prisoners.”
In an emotional Oval Office call, Kara-Murza spoke to his family and the President of the United States.
He said: "No word is strong enough for this."
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“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.”
Kara-Murza was serving a horrific 25-year prison sentence for “treason” in a hellhole penal colony in Siberia.
He was arrested in April 2022 before being sentenced a year later in a “show trial”.
While in prison his health deteriorated and friends worried that he would "likely die".
Kara-Murza, who grew up and studied in Britain, suffers from a nerve disorder after the two poisonings in 2015 and 2017 that he blames on the Kremlin.
Fears of a planned Russian assassination were ramped up when Kara-Murza's ally Alexei Navalny was found dead inside his jail.
I still think I am sleeping in my prison cell in Omsk instead of hearing your voice
Vladimir Kara-Murza to his family
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.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has also threatened those the Kremlin freed.
He said: “I would like, of course, for the traitors to Russia to rot in a dungeon or die in prison, as often happened.”
He implied that those freed - who were pardoned by Putin before they flew abroad - would need protection in future from Russian agents.
He said: “Let the traitors now feverishly select new names and actively disguise themselves under the witness protection programme.”
Fears over his health were highlighted again recently after the Brit vanished from jail and was sent to an "unknown location".
Russia's prison service FSIN said Kara-Murza was being transferred from the IK-6 penal colony in Omsk to another location - but it did not say where.
His lawyer Vadim Prokhorov wrote on Facebook: "Today a lawyer for Vladimir Kara-Murza for a second day running was not allowed to visit him in a prison hospital.
"The exact location of the political prisoner is unknown."
The lawyer was stopped from visiting on Tuesday and Wednesday because Kara-Murza was having a "medical examination", Prokhorov said.
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More than 160 Russian citizens have been imprisoned for opposing the war, according to human rights group OVD-Info - however Kara-Murza's sentence is the harshest so far.
A total of 19,854 Russians were arrested between February 24, 2022 and January 28, 2024 for speaking out or demonstrating against the invasion.
Timeline of Evan Gershkovich's detainment
FALSELY jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained on baseless accusations of espionage in March 2023.
Here is a timeline of key events:
Russia's security service, the FSB, charged him with espionage - a charge that he, the WSJ and the US government deny.
They argued - without evidence - that he collected “information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
Day 12: April 10, 2023 - The US designated Gershkovich wrongfully detained and launched effort on Russia to free him.
Day 20: April 18, 2023 - A Moscow court upheld his pre-trial detention, denied him bail and ordered him to be held in the capital's infamous Lefortovo prison.
Day 55: May 23, 2023 - Gershkovich's detention was extended until at least August 30.
His parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, travelled to the hearing and said "any parents who loves their kid would travel to the end of the world to be with them for give minutes."
Day 76: June 13, 2023 - The White House called on Russia to immediately free Gershkovich and also free former US marine Paul Whelan, who was convicted of espionage in 2020.
Day 85: June 22, 2023 - A Moscow court upheld the extension of Gershkovich's detention until at least August 30.
Day 100: July 7, 2023 - The world's press stood for solidarity with the reporter as his shameful detention reached 100 days.
Day 174: September, 19, 2023 - Gershkovich had another appeal for freedom blocked.
Day 195: October 10, 2023 - The US reporter had yet another appeal denied which would see his detention extended until at least November 30.
Day 244: November 28, 2023 - A court ruled Gershkovich would remain in pre-trial detention until at least January 30.
Day 303: January 26, 2024 - The innocent journalist's time behind bars was extended until the end of March.
Day 316: February 8, 2024 - Vladimir Putin tells US TV host Tucker Carlson a deal could be reached between Russia and the US over Gershkovich.
Day 363: March 26, 2024: Gershkovich's detention will drag on until June 30 as he nears one year behind bars.
Day 442: June 13, 2024: Russian authorities announce he will stand trial over bogus accusations that the reporter was spying for the CIA
Day 455: June 26, 2024: Closed-door sham trial begins in Yekaterinburg at the Sverdlovsk courthouse with Evan appearing inside a glass cage.
Day 478: July 19, 2024: Evan is sentenced to 16 years in Russian prison.
Day 491: August 1, 2024: Evan is released as part of a historic prisoner exchange deal between Russia and the West.
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