On August 1, 2024, there was a very important event not only in Russian politics, it is an event of truly global scale and significance, the exchange of political prisoners of Russia with criminals detained by Western countries.

The exchange deal was held in Ankara.

Which countries participated: Russia, USA, Germany, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Belarus.

Whom Russia handed over to the West: Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, Alsu Kurmasheva, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Andrei Pivovarov, Ilya Yashin, Sasha Skochilenko, Ksenia Fadeeva, Lilia Chanysheva, Vadim Ostanin, Oleg Orlov, Kevin Leek, German Mojzes, Rico Krieger. Two more people whose identities have not been officially confirmed have also been handed over — presumably Patrick Shebel and Demiuri Voronin.

Whom the West handed over to Russia: Vadim Krasikov, Artem and Anna Dultsev, Mikhail Mikushin, Pavel Rubtsov, Roman Seleznev, Vladislav Klushin, Vadim Konoschenok.

A detailed report about the exchange is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvchtpcDkVk.

Also a detailed description of this exchange is described in the material https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/c7202wxglr9o.

There is no point in discussing whether legal norms were violated during the exchange and the rights of those who were released — the violation of law is that Russia continues to hold political prisoners who continue to sit in prison, such as Alexei Gorinov. And those who left Russia because of the threat of reprisals are also actually expelled from it,” he recalls. — The exchange, for all its costs, is in fact a moral victory of the free world over tyranny.

How many more such exchanges will it take before all of Russia’s detained political figures are released? Will there be fewer deaths and “accidents” involving detained and imprisoned politicians? Perhaps no one can answer this question now, but if there is hope for the triumph of humanism over tyranny, then there will be more lives and health of political activists saved.