The President of the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Marc Cools, has made the following statement:
"On behalf of the Congress, I unreservedly welcome the liberation of municipal councillors from Tomsk, Ksenia Fadeeva and from the Moscow Krasnoselsky, District Ilya Yashin, opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza and other political opponents in Russia and in Belarus who had been imprisoned for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine, and who were freed in a recent prisoners' exchange.
"I reiterate the call made by the Congress in its Resolution 494 in October 2023 for the immediate and unconditional release of all anti-war political activists and prisoners of conscience in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, imprisoned for expressing their opinions.
"We continue to stand in solidarity with all those critics of the war who remain unlawfully deprived of liberty or are facing persecution - such as municipal councillors Alexei Gorinov, Oleg Nepein, Anatoly Arseev and many other local and regional elected representatives, human rights defenders, journalists, youth activists and political opponents. Today, we need to continue to keep pressure on the Russian authorities for their immediate release.
"The imprisonment of politicians, journalists and ordinary citizens in the Russian Federation and Belarus for peacefully expressing their opposition to the dictatorial regimes in power or for criticising the Russian Federation's war of aggression against Ukraine is unacceptable. Just like the Russian Federation's taking Western nationals hostage as a bargaining chip for the release of criminals."
