Prisoner exchange Russian opposition figure Kara Mourza recounts release from Siberian camp

and to kill someone when people are paying attention so my first message to president M will be please don't forget Russia symbols of the 2020 protests is now Congressional Life Death very as well and um I think a lot will depend of what happens in the US this with anything else he wrote that nobody will ever again be able to divide us you know uh between a left wi Camp to predict how when exactly they become more than that uh up until you know very short I was sitting in my cell alone as always uh when suddenly two prison officers in uniforms came into my cell uh and escort me out somewhere uh so they brought me into this prison office there's a desk uh a chair a big portrait of Vladimir Putin on the wall and on a desk uh there was a blank sheet of paper a pen and some sort of a pre-printed template next to it and so they said okay sit down and please write what's written there in your own hand so I sit down I look at the template and it is a request for pardon addressed to Vladimir Putin in which I was supposed to admit my guilt of all the quote unquote crimes that I've been committed uh convicted for first I thought it was a joke when I read the paper I just sort of laughed at them and said you know what is this but they didn't seem to be in the mood for laughing generally you know most people in Russian prison system don't have a very good sense of humor so I thought it wasn't a joke and then I said what you really expect me to write this they said yes please go and write it says I'm never going to write anything like this and then they said why not and uh they told me that I have 10 minutes to get up and get ready and at that moment I was absolutely certain that I was going to be let out and be executed but instead of the nearby Forest um they drove me to the airport prison Convoy I was in handcuffs they took me to the airport insk a normal regular civilian passenger airport bursting with people and you know after months and months and months in solitary confinement when I could not as much as say hello to anyone to suddenly find myself in the middle of a busy passenger airport with you know people families with kids cafes and shops open it was it was mindboggling I I don't have the words to describe what how it felt I was placed into a sold confinement cell the door was shut nothing was explained um and this is how I passed the following 5 days um Frankly Speaking I know that how strange that's going to come out sounding but Frankly Speaking I enjoyed my time in lefor because after my prison Omsk this was like a resort it was like a five-star hotel I had a bed you know in Omsk my bunk would be folded up uh to the wall at 5:00 in the morning and I couldn't take it down again until 9:00 in the evening for the for the lights out um here I had a bed in which I could lie nobody cared I had as many books as I wanted I I could write