Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin has urged the Ukrainian government not to surrender an inch of territory, warning that it would embolden President Putin to become “more aggressive” just days after his release from prison,
Yashin said: “If you let Putin gobble up Ukraine now, he will 100 percent move on. No illusions.”
“This is what I told the representative of the German government. If it seems to you that some people in Germany, in other corridors of power, are like, ‘let’s give Putin Ukraine or part of Ukraine and he will be satisfied with that and then stop’. This will not happen.”
Yashin drew parallels to the infamous Munich Agreement, where the appeasement of Hitler only led to further aggression.
“Such agreements end with the fact that the tyrant goes further, becomes more impudent, more aggressive. Dictators and tyrants, aggressors, always perceive such gentleness and compromise as weakness”, he continued.
“If you surrender Ukraine to Putin, you will suffer yourself. Because after that, Putin will definitely come to the Baltic states, to Poland. They are already threatening to do so. Listen to what they say.”
Yashin, who spent his imprisonment in harsh conditions with limited contact with the outside world, also detailed the conditions of his time being incarcerated in Russia.
He said: “I was in a strict conditions barrack, in a pre-trial detention centre, in cells with TV sets. I listened to this bull****, excuse me, almost every day.”
The comments come as former Putin’s former Prime Minister and current deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev hinted that those freed in a prisoner exchange with Russia might face attacks abroad.
Medvedev praised the returned Russian citizens, labelling them patriots who had worked faithfully for the country, and criticised those released in return, calling them traitors.
“They are an existential threat to the existence of today’s Russia”, he said “They are the servants of our enemies. That is why they are gladly accepted by foreign leaders, realising that they are the true hope for the collapse of Russia.
“Let them not forget about the perishability of their existence in this world. Let them look around, in short. And in general – let them burn in hell!”
The recent prisoner swap saw eight Russians, including a convicted murderer, exchanged for 16 prisoners freed from Russian and Belarusian jails. Among those freed were Russian dissidents and Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Two of the freed Russian dissidents, now in Germany, have expressed their desire to return to Russia and continue their political activism.
Yashin echoed this sentiment, despite the emotional toll of being freed in exchange for a convicted assassin.
“I said it a number of times that I did not want to be part of any exchange lists,” he said previously. “The Kremlin representatives gladly included my name because for them my exchange essentially means expulsion.”