Opposition politician swapped in exchange with West finds himself back on Russia’s wanted list

Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who was exchanged in the largest prisoner swap between Russia and the West in August, is once again listed as wanted on the Interior Ministry’s criminal investigation database, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Wednesday.

The information appeared on the Interior Ministry website on 25 December, according to Mediazona, and means a new criminal case has been opened against Yashin in Russia.

Yashin told Mediazona that he had not received a summons or any formal notification of the new charges, and he remains unaware of what those news charges are. “Obviously, if ever I decide to return home, I would immediately be arrested at the airport,” he added.

While commenting that this was an unwelcome gift just ahead of the New Year, Yashin said he was in no way surprised by the news, calling it predictable, and saying he understood this would happen when he and other political prisoners being held in Russia were exchanged in the summer.

Yashin was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison in December 2022 for spreading “false information” about the Russian army for publicly condemning the indiscriminate killing of Ukrainian civilians by occupying Russian troops in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha in March of that year.

Yashin has stayed in Germany since the prisoner swap in August and remains a high-profile figure within the sometimes fractious Russian opposition in exile. Last month, he and fellow opposition leaders Yulia Navalnaya and Vladimir Kara-Murza held an anti-war protest in a show of unity in the capital, Berlin. They have slated another event for March 2025.