Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to pardon 13 prisoners who took part in a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries, a message posted on the Kremlin's official website said.
"The President of Russia signed decrees to pardon US citizens Whelan Paul Nicholas, Gershkovich Evan and other previously imprisoned persons. The decision to sign the relevant decrees was made to bring back home the Russian citizens who were stying on the territory of foreign states," the message said.
The Kremlin also stressed that Russia was grateful to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "for the goodwill gesture" and for his decision to pardon German citizen Rico Krieger.
On August 1, Russia, the United States and several European countries held a major prisoner swap in Ankara. The negotiations on the subject had been held secretly for several months.
The list of those pardoned includes:
- Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage;
- Kevin Lik, a citizen of Russia and Germany, was sentenced to four years for treason;
- Demuri Voronin, a political scientist, received 13 years and 3 months in prison for treason;
- Vladimir Kara-Murza (included in the register of foreign agents), a journalist, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason related to fakes about the army;
- Alsu Karmasheva, a journalist for the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Liberty (the radio station is recognized in Russia as a foreign agent and an undesirable organization), sentenced to six and a half years in prison for fakes about the army;
- Liliya Chanysheva, the former head of Alexei Navalny's headquarters (headquarters are recognized as extremist organizations and banned in Russia) in Ufa, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on charges of calling for extremism (Part 1 of Article 280), organizing an extremist community (Part 3 of Article 282.1), and an NPO that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens (Part 3 of Article 239).;
- Vadim Ostanin, the former coordinator of Navalny's headquarters in Barnaul, sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of an extremist community and an organization that infringes on the rights of citizens;
- Ksenia Fadeeva, the former head of Navalny's headquarters in Tomsk, sentenced on charges of organizing an extremist community using official position and promoting the creation of an NPO that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens;
- Alexandra Skochilenko, imprisoned for seven years in November 2023 for replacing price tags with leaflets in a Perekrestok supermarket in March 2022;
- Ilya Yashin (recognized as a foreign agent), a former Moscow municipal deputy, sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in a case of fakes about the army;
- Andrei Pivovarov, the former head of Open Russia (an organization recognized as undesirable in Russia and banned) sentenced to four years in prison in 2022 in a case of leading an organization whose activities are recognized as undesirable in Russia (Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).;
- Oleg Orlov (recognized as a foreign agent), co-founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights center Memorial (included in the register of foreign agents), sentenced to two and a half years in prison on charges of discrediting the armed forces.