INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
prominent opposition activist, 42, was pulled off a Warsaw-bound plane by Russian security services in 2021 after the pro-democracy group
Moscow Times spoke to Pivovarov about the swap and his plans for the future:MT: How did you feel when you were being taken to the airport?
Did you know that it was an exchange?AP: By the time we got to the airport, it was already clear that we were being taken to an exchange,
but we didn't know where.I guess I fully understood the very fact of what was happening when I was being taken from the colony on Saturday
It was the 25th [of July]
I realized that something extraordinary was going on because I was picked up by the head of the colony and he personally helped me carry my
But there were no specifics.You tend to assume the worst in any unclear situation
I had all sorts of thoughts
And I see a name on the previous line: Alexandra Skochilenko
pardoned by the tsar and released in front of the RT cameras
was concealed until the very end
When we were brought to Lefortovo [Prison, before the exchange], we were in isolation and could not contact anyone.On Thursday morning they
brought us a release certificate with no order number, nothing
We had half an hour to pack, we brought our things.There were people in masks and uniforms with us
If any of us resisted and refused to be deported, their task was to put us on the plane by any means
They explicitly told us that afterward.The first person I saw on the bus was [Ilya] Yashin
It was certainly nice to see him
There were familiar and unfamiliar faces after that, but personally, I was very worried whether Volodya Kara-Murza would be there
He was one of the last to be brought in, which was a huge relief, since he has the longest sentence.Do you know who lobbied for your
inclusion in the list?How the lists were formed is a mystery to me
I haven't been able to talk to all my colleagues yet
From my understanding, there were different groups from which information was gathered and the final list was much larger than what you have
And it was shortened by Russia
When all the wishes were collected and communicated and sort of agreed upon, fewer people were eventually released.You were supposed to be
If you look at my criminal case, the period that I had left [to serve] cannot be compared to the terms of the others [political prisoners].I
can say that I have information from several sources that the probability of my release [at the end of my sentence] was not guaranteed
And unfortunately, there were calls that said that in my case, the outcome might not be the best.What are your plans now? Do you know what
you will do in the near future?I am now a person with no documents and no sense of home
It's hard to make serious plans
My stay in prison did not repel me from it, but on the contrary motivated me even more
I have some ideas, as I had time to think and reflect [in prison].And the main goal here, probably, is to try to talk more with those who
To try to offer a plan to work with those who may not be our supporters, but who are frustrated with what is happening
If we can give them [people in Russia] the opportunity to express themselves without putting themselves at serious risk, I think that's what
a democratic force should do.
