Journalist and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, activist Andrei Pivovarov, and opposition figure Ilya Yashin address a press conference on August 2 in Bonn, Germany, the day after they were released as part of an East-West prisoner swap.
During his entire imprisonment in Russia, Andrei Pivovarov yearned for one thing: freedom.
"To be released. You always count the days, hours, months. The only [desire] is to break free. Any person, politically oriented or not, sitting in prison, wants to be free," Pivovarov told Current Time.
Pivovarov, 42, was part of the biggest prisoner exchange between the West and Russia since the Cold War.
In the exchange on August 1, Russia got back eight prisoners held in the West, including a member of its FSB security service convicted of murder in Germany, and 16 people were released from Russian and Belarusian jails. They included Pivovarov, dissidents Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, and U.S. citizens Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, and RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
Yashin, Pivovarov, and Kara-Murza enter a news conference in Bonn on August 2.
Pivovarov, the former executive director of the now-defunct pro-democracy Open Russia movement, was detained in May 2021 after being taken off a Warsaw-bound plane just before takeoff from St. Petersburg and sentenced to four years in prison in July 2022 on a charge of heading an "undesirable organization."
The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources, mainly from Europe and the United States.
After his trial in Krasnodar, the St. Petersburg native was convicted and sentenced in July 2022, when Russia's full-scale war and Russian President Vladimir Putin's intensified crackdown on dissent were in full swing.
From January 2023, Pivovarov was held in isolation at Penal Colony No. 7 in Russia's Karelia region.
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Since his release and transfer to Germany, Pivovarov has given numerous interviews but is hoping to find time now to rest and spend time with his family.
"I would like to exhale. Plus, during all this time I was deprived of the opportunity to communicate with my son, so I would really like to meet him, spend time with him," Pivovarov told Current Time, adding he has no plans to abandon his "political work."
Pivovarov admitted that voicing opposition to Putin's regime is easier from abroad but with possible drawbacks.
"When you are in Russia, any unification, any coordination is automatically a criminal offense. At the same time, having a platform abroad, where we are now, on the one hand, to be honest, diminishes the weight of our words, because it is easy to say something while sitting outside in the sun and knowing that no policeman is coming for you," Pivovarov explained. "On the other hand, this allows us to say more than what people in Russia can afford."
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Breathing life into Russia's opposition, largely silenced by Putin's repression and infighting, will be a formidable task, admitted Pivovarov, saying the goal should be "not to unite but to establish a dialogue, contact."
"Of course, there will still be disputes," he said.
Pivovarov was also asked about comments he made at a Bonn press conference on August 2, when he appeared to suggest that Western sanctions against Russia were unfairly impacting ordinary Russians, triggering some criticism, especially among Ukrainians.
"There was no phrase about the unfairness of sanctions. I don't remember all the words verbatim, but there was no phrase about the unfairness of sanctions. Sanctions are effective, and they work. I'm talking about, for example, a housewife -- a stupid example -- but it seems typical to me. And she has, let's say, a small child, and she cooks at home. So that she has the opportunity to buy at least some more or less normal products, so that her small everyday world becomes a little simpler," Pivovarov offered.
Pivovarov said Russian opponents of Putin shared common goals with Ukrainians.
"Our goals are the same. We want to work together to ensure that the war ends, that the regime in Russia changes, and that, ultimately, Putin ends up in the dock. This is our main goal," he said. "We just look at this from the perspective of Russian society, and in this regard we can be more useful."
Pivovarov, the former executive director of the now-defunct pro-democracy Open Russia movement, was detained in May 2021 after being taken off a Warsaw-bound plane just before takeoff from St. Petersburg and sentenced to four years in prison in July 2022 on a charge of heading an "undesirable organization."
The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources, mainly from Europe and the United States.
After his trial in Krasnodar, the St. Petersburg native was convicted and sentenced in July 2022, when Russia's full-scale war and Russian President Vladimir Putin's intensified crackdown on dissent were in full swing.
From January 2023, Pivovarov was held in isolation at Penal Colony No. 7 in Russia's Karelia region.
SEE ALSO:
'Just Walking Down The Street Is Happiness': Freed Russian Rights Activist Orlov Speaks Of Life Outside Prison
Since his release and transfer to Germany, Pivovarov has given numerous interviews but is hoping to find time now to rest and spend time with his family.
"I would like to exhale. Plus, during all this time I was deprived of the opportunity to communicate with my son, so I would really like to meet him, spend time with him," Pivovarov told Current Time, adding he has no plans to abandon his "political work."
Pivovarov admitted that voicing opposition to Putin's regime is easier from abroad but with possible drawbacks.
"When you are in Russia, any unification, any coordination is automatically a criminal offense. At the same time, having a platform abroad, where we are now, on the one hand, to be honest, diminishes the weight of our words, because it is easy to say something while sitting outside in the sun and knowing that no policeman is coming for you," Pivovarov explained. "On the other hand, this allows us to say more than what people in Russia can afford."
SEE ALSO:
Navalny's Widow Says He Should Have Been Released In Recent Prisoner Swap
Breathing life into Russia's opposition, largely silenced by Putin's repression and infighting, will be a formidable task, admitted Pivovarov, saying the goal should be "not to unite but to establish a dialogue, contact."
"Of course, there will still be disputes," he said.
Pivovarov was also asked about comments he made at a Bonn press conference on August 2, when he appeared to suggest that Western sanctions against Russia were unfairly impacting ordinary Russians, triggering some criticism, especially among Ukrainians.
"There was no phrase about the unfairness of sanctions. I don't remember all the words verbatim, but there was no phrase about the unfairness of sanctions. Sanctions are effective, and they work. I'm talking about, for example, a housewife -- a stupid example -- but it seems typical to me. And she has, let's say, a small child, and she cooks at home. So that she has the opportunity to buy at least some more or less normal products, so that her small everyday world becomes a little simpler," Pivovarov offered.
Pivovarov said Russian opponents of Putin shared common goals with Ukrainians.
"Our goals are the same. We want to work together to ensure that the war ends, that the regime in Russia changes, and that, ultimately, Putin ends up in the dock. This is our main goal," he said. "We just look at this from the perspective of Russian society, and in this regard we can be more useful."
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