OPINION: Russian prisoner exchange cause for celebration and fear

Every day for nearly a year and a half, I’ve prepared myself for the worst possible news about a jailed Russian dissident I befriended more than a decade ago. Yet just a few days ago, on Aug. 1, my trepidation turned to celebration at the release of Vladimir Kara-Murza as part of the 24-person Russian prisoner swap negotiated by the Biden administration.

After surviving two poisonings in Russia in an effort to silence his civil rights activism, Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022 and sentenced to 25 years in a Russian gulag. Many Russia watchers, me included, feared he would end up like the highest profile Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who also survived several attempts on his life before dying in a remote Siberian prison in February.

I first met the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in 2012 when I worked as a staffer to then-U.S. Sen. Mark Begich. Vladimir was the right-hand man to Boris Nemtsov, then Russia’s most outspoken opponent of President Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov got his political start as the reformist governor of Nizhny-Novgorod, a large industrial city east of Moscow where he won admiration in the West for overseeing his region’s transformation from communism to capitalism.

In 1993, I lived in Russia and served as a volunteer media adviser in Nemtsov’s office. There I witnessed his energy, vision and ability to garner international media attention. More than a decade later, Nemtsov was a regular in American press and political circles for challenging Putin’s increasing authoritarianism.

He was silenced in early 2015, when Nemtsov and his girlfriend were walking near Red Square. A van of assassins rushed by, firing up to eight gunshots and killing him instantly.

Kara-Murza picked up the pieces of Nemtsov’s legacy, courageously advocating for open elections, independent media and civil rights for Russians. He especially got under Putin’s skin by helping persuade Congress to pass legislation imposing sanctions on Russian officials implicated in civil rights abuses. Putin was so angry when President Barack Obama signed the bill that he barred Americans — including many Alaskans — from adopting Russian children.

Fearful of the advocacy of dissidents like Kara-Murza, Putin continues to brutally crack down on opposition. At least 1,300 Russians have been prosecuted for opposing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The number of Russian political prisoners has increased 15-fold since 2012, with many banished to deadly gulags.

Those of us living free, comfortable lives in the West are perplexed why the likes of Navalny and Kara-Murza continue their advocacy inside Russia, especially after risking death numerous times. They say they can’t ask average Russians to stand up against their government inside their homeland if they are unwilling to do so, too.

The prisoner swap release of Kara-Murza, Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich and others held in Russian prisons is cause for both celebration and praise for the potential of diplomacy. But amid the rejoicing, we must admit Putin is once again the big winner.

In exchange for challengers to his regime, he secured the release of a motley crew of Russian spies and criminals arrested for serious crimes in the West, including a cold-blooded assassin. Putin is telling his citizens through media he controls that he brought home patriots and while again standing up to enemies of the Motherland.

For my 2017 book on Alaska-Russia relations, “Melting the Ice Curtain,” Kara-Murza contributed a cover blurb that gains relevance each day.

He wrote: " ... Ramseur’s book recalls a more hopeful time when Russia was striving for democratic reforms and when U.S.-Russia relations were defined by cooperation and goodwill. It is also a valuable reminder that nothing is predetermined and that we should never cease to work for a better tomorrow.”

David Ramseur is a former Alaska journalist who has traveled to Russia about 15 times.

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