Vladimir Kara-Murza telling the story of his release from Russia, during prisoner exchange

when we were on the plane on road to Turkey but to me um this whole movie I already referred to began on the 23rd of July it was a Tuesday suddenly the doors of myself cell are two double two sort of metal doors one on the outside and the metal bar door on inside particular dangerous criminal in a soic conf the two doors bur open um and a couple officially walked in and told me to come with them so they take me into an office there's a desk a chair big portrait of Putin on the wall there's a piece of paper a pen and some sort of a template with a pre-printed text next to the sheet of paper and so the official told me to sit down and write what in a template you know from my own hand and and sign my name and this was a request for pardon address to vlir in which I was supposed to admit my guilt Express remorse for what I have done etc etc origin thought it was a joke so i s I just laugh in his face and I said what is this he said no please sign me he said no I'm not going to sign he said why you sign said you have internet like me you Google my biography don't you know my I'm first because I do not consider pu to be a legitimate president I consider him to be a user dict and a murderer and because I'm no any guilt I'm not guilty of anything the real criminals are those who are waiting this war not those of us who are speaking out against it so um he asked me to put on writing which that I was happy to do and I did signed a data and gave it to him and then at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday July 28th um and I have to say that even by the standards of the Russian prison system even by the standards of Putin's mod day the Western Siberian city where it was held is notorious for its fanatical adherence to discipline everything has to be done by the by the paragraph by the minute and so you know if you undo your button that's a violation you get disciplinary sell punish if you remove your hand for a minute in the courtyard that's a violation you get that's gets registered you get punished with displ so and so to be your bunk bed at night is a violation too so when the door of my cell burst open at 3:00 a.m. and they barging a group of prison officers and they tell me to get up and get ready in 10 minutes um I was actually absolutely convinced I was going to be let be executed and actually when we Shar our experiences on that plane again three or four hours was done in the S man you all thought you've been Walken in the middle of the night right that's the way they usually do anybody was attempting to escape scen is but instead of the nearby WS they took me to to the airport just the normal regular civilian airports and I have to tell you k i I don't think I have enough words to to sort of Express the feeling because I spent out of 2 and a half years in prison i' spent 11 months straight in s find when you literally sit in a you know 2x3 me even four walls just staring in a wall being able to as much as you say h to and after that I suddenly burst in the middle of on the air normal regular aort families people you know kids what I was Hand by this stage of course I I realized that I'm probably not going to get executed because world just not that what's the point but I have absolutely no idea what's going on they board me a plane in hand with the Convoy and we fly to Moscow it's a 3our flight last year actually actually this time last year when I was taken from Moscow to Siberia it took 3 weeks in Le sturing carriages as the Russian prison trains with the transit prisons and so on went from Samar through chin through uh that was a 3we journey this was 3 hours much quicker one I needless to say they take prisoners in Russia by plane so something really weird was happening nobody explain or why what was going on so we're fly to Moscow I get put in the Patty wagon and driv them somewhere which they there are no windows in those Patty so when you sit inside you don't see anything you just sit in the SM FR space um and so when they told me to get out it was an internal Courtyard a yellow brick prison building didn't say where I was but I'm a must I know what Le fors like and of course I know from literature from fromi from shansi it's a legendary prison it many celebrated the promise of in the so at this point you're thinking trying to have fire at this point I'm thinking there's going to be any criminal case cuz that's the reason they usually take it to the for if you are already a prisoner and they take you from your regular prison to the usually start from the criminal case struggled to think of why on Earth would they open a new CRI location with somebody who already essentially has a life sentence 25 years but you know logic doesn't always work with the system the repressor machine has it own inter logic to its actions and everything look really really cped every moment so this prison officer the captain who was sort of checking me in and registering me we had this most bizarre conversation with him so I say first I Tred to where where we are he just looked at me a smile but again I knew it was before so I said to him can you please notify my family and my lawyers that are are being transferred to Moscow CU they're going to be worried sick cuz that's the way they always do things in the Russian prison system you just disappeared so when I was trans to Siberia I just disappeared not of my you know my wife my kids my know you where I actually was and it was the same so I said can you please Noy by law you have to so so that my family knows and so this Captain looks at me smiles and says but you're not going to MOS Liv you still in so which actually have things right so I said okay I know the rules I've been transferred to new prison I have the right to go to the show go to the show looks at me again smiles again and says you are in so you can be taking a shower in so I said so presumably that walks in the parkyard will the I said yeah you're absolutely right the too and then I said and excuse me for the for the language but I said uh well can I got a toilet here is that going to be he said no that's fine you have one in yourself you can go you can go to the toilet here so they take me to uh another soci find myself but I have to say the photo was like was like a hotel like a resort I I know how that's going to come out sound but I enjoyed my time because I mean not uh had to fold my B to the wall at 5 a.m. after that all you can do is either walk around a small cell you sit at a really small and comfortable stool um you get everything gets regulated as I mentioned uh you can only have p pap to 1990 minutes a day one and a half hours and they take it away again and essentially you just sit and stir at a wall uh for for for the whole for the whole duration of the day so your travel guide to Russian prisons would say this was an upgrade oh this was definitely not okay this was a f stop by the Russian prison system and and by the way actually if you read about the for in Memoirs by S they said the same thing so that was the case like so I had a bed I could Li it nobody cared I had my notepads and pens and books nobody cared I wasn't limited in you know how long I could read or right um how long did this go five days uh and uh and nothing happened so I I thought this was this is a new criminal case but if it's a new criminal case you're supposed to get interrogated it's supposed to be you know some people coming in to talk to you nothing is happening or just sitting there on my own in a complete conting and then um on the morning of August 1st and this was the answer to your question when I knew and this is the case with all the the one of AUST first uh the deputy director of the for walk with the same captain they wrot over my bags and they said um take off your prison uniform put on whatever civilian clothes you have and I said well all I have from my civilian clothes I have basically you know a t-shirt in which i s um black Underpants too CU he gets really cold inside M 14 win so when you go around and sort of a small courtyard to walk you have to put something underneath your clothes not to get completely freezing so I had those and the other shoes I had were was uh were the uh rubber flipflops go to the shower t-shirt Long John and rubber exactly so that's all I had and the uh this Cel said why don't have any normal C in clothes I said look man I'm serving a 25e sentence in solitary confinement in a stct regime prison in Siberia what would I exhibit in Clos he had nothing to respond to that I said okay put put that on so I put on the long the T-shirt Toops I was start to take my bags and I was SC downstairs and I was again and this is I keep coming back to the movie it wasn't movie there was a row of Men In Black Faces standing pretty inid excit just a small you know small space the black in um C CL this was an FSB special un and they told me to go outside to the interal prison together and there was a bus parked in in there and they told me to get out there and I got into the bus it's totally dark there's no light room the windows are tinted black and in every row of that bus were morea cover blacka cover FSB special un operatives and next to each of them I saw a friend a colleague a fellow political prisoner the first person I saw was all love from out from the human rights activist uh the second person I saw was my friend and colleague uh Andre the former director of Russ watch of this conference May and the third person I saw was politici for we' all been serving time in different regions of Russ in different places um and there was only there could only be one reason for us all to be on the same that was at very last moment now I want to read