A prominent figure in the liberal opposition to Vladimir Putin since the 2000s, Ilia Yashin, 41, was a Moscow city councilor when he was arrested in June 2022. He was sentenced in December 2022 to eight and a half years in prison for criticizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and denouncing crimes committed against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, near Kyiv. He was released on August 1, 2024, as part of the largest prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries since the end of the Cold War. He now lives in Berlin. Visiting Paris for meetings at the Elysée and the Foreign Affairs Ministry, he spoke with Le Monde on Monday, May 26.

It is a heavy feeling. It is extremely hard on both physical and psychological health. But the regime killed several of my friends, other figures from the anti-Kremlin opposition, including Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny [the most prominent opposition leader, who died under suspicious circumstances in detention on February 16, 2024]. Those two assassinations were far more painful for me than my own imprisonment. Vladimir Putin started the war in Ukraine, which kills innocent people and deprives families of their homes every day: That leaves a much deeper mark on me than the memory of prison.

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