Russian dissidents say Putin is a 'tyrant and war criminal'
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2024
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Two of the most high-profile Russian dissidents freed as part of a major prisoner swap say they refused officials' demands to plead for mercy from President Putin to secure their release. Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin said they considered him a tyrant, a murderer and a war criminal.
Also in the programme, the Venezuelan government cracks down on protests against last weekend's disputed election.
And North Korea is hoping that Donald Trump becomes the next US President - that's according to a senior North Korean defector.
(Photo: Released prisoners make press statement in Bonn following prisoner swap between Russia and the West, Germany - 02 Aug 2024. Credit: EPA)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service coming live from London |
| 0:07.8 | this is Owen Bennett Jones. |
| 0:09.7 | Back in the days of the Cold War prisoner swaps were generally thought of as the US and the Soviet Union |
| 0:16.4 | trading agents in Berlin, CIA for KGB. |
| 0:20.9 | So perhaps it's a sign of a more multi-polar world that today's exchange involved |
| 0:25.9 | 24 people from six countries. The best known Rili C's, Wall Street Journal |
| 0:31.3 | reporter Evan Gerskovich convicted just two weeks ago of espionage and |
| 0:37.0 | Vadim Krasikov serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a former Chechen commander in a Berlin park. |
| 0:45.5 | The swaps all happened at an airport in Ankara and involved seven different planes, Germany, |
| 0:51.8 | Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Russia all involved. |
| 0:54.8 | President Biden welcomed the releases. |
| 0:58.1 | And this is a very good afternoon. |
| 1:00.6 | A very good afternoon. |
| 1:01.8 | Today we're bringing on Paul Evan, Alsu, Vladimir. Three American |
| 1:07.2 | citizens and one American green cardholder. All four have been imprisoned |
| 1:12.3 | unjustly in Russia, |
| 1:14.0 | Paul for nearly six years. |
| 1:16.0 | Vladimir since 2022, |
| 1:18.0 | Evan since March of 2023, |
| 1:21.0 | and I'll sue since October of 2023. |
| 1:25.4 | Russian authorities arrested them, convicted them in show trials, |
| 1:30.0 | and sends them the long prison terms, with absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever, none. |
... |
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