The President of the Council of Europe’s Congress of Native and Regional Authorities, Marc Cools, has made the next assertion:
“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 different political opponents in Russia and in Belarus who had been imprisoned for opposing Russia’s conflict towards Ukraine, and who have been freed in a latest prisoners’ alternate.
“I reiterate the decision made by the Congress in its Decision 494 in October 2023 for the instant and unconditional launch of all anti-war political activists and prisoners of conscience in Russia and within the quickly occupied territories of Ukraine, imprisoned for expressing their opinions.
“We proceed to face in solidarity with all these critics of the conflict who stay unlawfully disadvantaged of liberty or are going through persecution – reminiscent of municipal councillors Alexei Gorinov, Oleg Nepein, Anatoly Arseev and plenty of different native and regional elected representatives, human rights defenders, journalists, youth activists and political opponents. As we speak, we have to proceed to maintain stress on the Russian authorities for his or her instant launch.
“The imprisonment of politicians, journalists and abnormal residents within the Russian Federation and Belarus for peacefully expressing their opposition to the dictatorial regimes in energy or for criticising the Russian Federation’s conflict of aggression towards Ukraine is unacceptable. Identical to the Russian Federation’s taking Western nationals hostage as a bargaining chip for the discharge of criminals.”