Scholz welcomes released Russian and Belarusian prisoners at Cologne airport

Scholz said many inmates were not expecting to be released and were emotional after their sudden release.

“Many people are worried about their health or even their lives,” Scholz said.

“That’s why it’s important that we’re here to protect them, too.”

On Thursday, two planes carrying 13 freed people, including five German citizens, arrived at Cologne/Bonn Airport from the Turkish capital Ankara in a 26-prisoner swap between Western countries and Russia and Belarus. Another three people released in Ankara flew directly to the United States, while 10 people released by Western countries planned to go to Russia.

Scholz interrupted his vacation to fly to Cologne to meet with released Russian and Belarusian prisoners.

After the meeting, Scholz said the prisoner exchange was the right decision.

“If there were any questions about that, they disappeared after talking to the people who are now free,” Scholz said.

“It is part of our image as a democratic and humanitarian society that those who have to fear for their lives because they defend democracy and freedom can also count on the protection of others,” Scholz said.

The publication “Informed” cites its sources and publishes the names of people released by Russia and Belarus. They include American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan, American “Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty” (RFE/RL) radio journalist, German citizen Arsu Kurmasheva, Rico Kruger, who was previously sentenced to death in Belarus and pardoned, German citizens Patrick Schebelis and Dieter Voronin, opposition activists Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, former coordinators of Navalny’s headquarters Lilia Chanisheva, Ksenia Fadeeva and Vadim Ostanin, as well as Andrei Pivovarov, Oleg Orlov, Sasha Stochilenko, Kevin Rick and Hermann Moigs.

The Russian Telegram channel “Mash” reported that Artyoms and Anna Dulcevi, collaborators of the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR, who were previously exposed in Slovenia, have been handed over to the Russian side. Alexander Vinnik, Maksim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenko, Vladislav Klyushin, Vladimir Dunayev and Roman Seleznov, who were arrested for cybercrime, have also been handed over to Russia, as well as Vadim Krasikov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany and was convicted of killing a former Chechen rebel commander in a Berlin park.

Germany said on Thursday that releasing convicted murderer Krasikova was not an easy decision. German government press representative Steffen Hebestreit made the decision to send Krasikova back to Russia based on Berlin’s responsibility to German citizens and solidarity with the United States. Hebestreit also called on “Russian and Belarusian leaders to release all political prisoners who have been unjustly imprisoned.”