TALLINN, Estonia (AP) —
Ilya YashinA prominent Kremlin critic serving an 8 1/2-year sentence for criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine has been transferred from prison to an unknown destination, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Tatyana Solomina’s statement on the Telegram messaging app did not provide further details. However, it noted that several other figures detained for criticizing the military or for alleged extremist activities due to their work with the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny were also transferred.
Among them are Oleg Orlov, president of the human rights group Memorial, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, sentenced to 2 and a half years in February; musician Alexandra Skochilenko, serving a 7-year sentence for replacing price tags in a supermarket with messages condemning civilian deaths in Ukraine; and Navalny’s former regional coordinators, Lillia Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeyeva, sentenced to 9 and a half and 9 years.
Also on Tuesday, Memorial said that German-born Russian citizen Kevin Liik, who was sentenced to four years for allegedly providing information to German special services, had been removed from his prison.
The movements generated speculation on social media about whether they were preparing for some kind of an exchange of prisoners. Kremlin critics and human rights advocates have previously called for swaps that would free Russian political prisoners.
Yashin is one of the few known Kremlin critics who remained in Russia after the start of the war. He was arrested in June 2022 in a Moscow park, convicted of spreading false information about Russian soldiers and sentenced to 8 and a half years in prison.
The accusation stemmed from a YouTube live broadcast in which he spoke about dead civilians in the Kiev suburb of Bucha. After Russian forces withdrew from the area in March 2022, hundreds of corpses were foundsome with their hands tied and shot at close range.
His harsh sentence did not silence Yashin’s harsh criticism of the Kremlin. Yashin’s associates regularly update their social media pages with messages he broadcasts from prison. His YouTube channel has over 1.5 million subscribers.
The condemnations for extremism and criticism of the war are part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent that has intensified sharply since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian authorities often transport prisoners without prior notice to their lawyers or family, and some only reach the surface for several weeks. Navalny was transferred in December without notice from a prison in central Russia to one above the Arctic Circle, a trip he said lasted 20 days. He died of unexplained causes in prison in February.
Two Americans are imprisoned in Russia on espionage convictions: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, sentenced to 20 years in July, and corporate security executive Paul Whelan. Alsu Kurmasheva, dual Russian-American nationality, journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, convicted in July of spreading false information about the military and sentenced to 6 and a half years.
