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After the prisoner swap between Russia and Western countries, some of the political prisoners released by Moscow went to Germany, which, according to VOA Berlin correspondent Ricardo Marquina, is a country that has historically served as a haven for fighting Russians. for change in their hometown.
The prisoners released by Russia, in a historic exchange with Western countries, went to Germany, a country already used to harboring those fleeing Russian repression.
Mr. Vitali Vobar went to Berlin in 2022. He was one of the few members of the opposition in the St. Petersburg regional parliament.
After speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian intelligence services knocked on his door. That's when he realized it was time to leave.
"There are still many people in Russia who believe in democratic values and who are against the war, including members of parliament in cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tomsk and Novosibirsk. But speaking openly against the war is forbidden and carries great risk,” he says.
When Russia's widespread attack on Ukraine began, thousands of Russians took to the streets to protest, but the protests were suppressed by the police.
One of those thousands of people who risked their freedom to oppose the war was Anja Demidova, an actress from Moscow. At the time when the authorities ordered her arrest, Anja was already on her way to Germany.
She has little hope for change in the near future in Russia.
"Among Russians there, there are many people who hope that Putin is not immortal, that he will die someday and that will change everything. But it seems to me, at least it seems to me now, that what is happening there (in terms of attitudes about Russian superiority) has deep roots and they are stronger and older than Putin himself,” she says.
In the two and a half years since Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian exiles have received mostly bad news: more arrests, more sentences, while opposition leader Alexey Navalny died in prison. In front of the Russian embassy in Berlin stands a makeshift place to commemorate him.
Bad news has become part of life for the comic actor, known as 'Foreign Dan', who fled Russia with his family the day the war started. He is less famous in Germany, where he earns a modest salary through work as a comedian. Despite the difficulties in Berlin, he does not think he will return to Russia.
"I am ready to earn less and feel free and devote myself to humor as I want and not as they allow me to. That's why we don't live in Germany thinking about how we will return, we don't treat our stay here as something temporary," he says.
From the tsarist era to the Soviet period, Berlin has served as a haven for those fleeing Russia's repression. Many deportees see the current tensions between Moscow and the West as a new Cold War and Berlin again as a symbol of the divide between the Kremlin and the rest of the world./ VOA
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