Escaping the brutal Russian penal system would seem like blessed deliverance to most inmates. But not to Ilya Yashin, who stunned the world last week when he angrily condemned his inclusion in a sweeping prisoner swap that freed him and a handful of other opposition figures in Russia.

Instead, he portrayed it as an act of duplicity rather than a benevolent humanitarian gesture.

“What happened on Aug. 1, I don’t view as a prisoner swap,” he said on Friday at a news conference in Bonn, Germany, seemingly blinking back tears, “but as my illegal expulsion from Russia against my will. And I say sincerely, more than anything I want now to go back home.”

To those who have followed Mr. Yashin’s career, his stance should not have been so surprising. He has spent the last two decades in Russia working against Vladimir V. Putin’s authoritarian rule, knowing that doing so would land him in jail and even preparing for it.

In a wide-ranging interview on Saturday night just 48 hours after his release, Mr. Yashin said the very fact that Russia was willing to free him confirmed “that I was actually a problem for them behind bars.”

Since his detention in June 2022, Mr. Yashin, 41, had managed to publish essays, letters, and statements against Mr. Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.