Prisoner freed as part of Biden's swap deal is furious about it — here's why

President Joe Biden's prisoner swap deal with Russia that freed several high-profile Americans including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan, along with a number of Russian state dissidents, has broadly been greeted with praise and celebration.

But one freed prisoner is not happy about the deal.

According to The New York Times, Ilya Yashin, a longtime activist working against Vladimir Putin, told reporters in Bonn, Germany, “What happened on Aug. 1 I don’t view as a prisoner swap but as my illegal expulsion from Russia against my will. And I say sincerely, more than anything, I want now to go back home.”

The problem, wrote Valerie Hopkins, is that Yashin's entire plan was to be imprisoned by the Kremlin and, from behind bars during his eight-and-a-half-year sentence, write essays and letters condemning Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.

He explicitly said he did not want to be included in a prisoner swap, saying instead that older prisoners or those in poorer health should go instead.

In other words, he wanted to be a symbol of resistance — and he believes Putin chose him for the exchange to prevent that from happening.

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“I was well aware that while in Russia, even behind bars — especially behind bars — I could tell the truth and the weight of my words would be quite high,” said Yashin. “Because when I stay in Russia and take those risks, I’m actually responsible for my words. People hear you much better when you’re there.

"And the fact that I was expelled from Russia proves that I was right.”

As for whether he can be as effective while freed, he said "time will tell" — but he understands any attempt to return to Russia could result in far more brutal reprisal and possibly death, like the fate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whom the U.S. unsuccessfully sought to free.

“I don’t really understand how to be a Russian politician in exile," said Yashin. "I don’t know how to do it, but I’ll try to learn it and try to be effective here too.”