As the US envoy heads to Moscow to negotiate a complex plan for peace in Ukraine, Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov says there is a vital element missing from the agenda.
Borders, security guarantees, the fate of frozen Russian assets and the prospects for joint US-Russian investment projects are expected to be on the table when President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
But Muratov is concerned about the fate of people — above all, the hundreds of people imprisoned in Russia under censorship laws passed after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which made it a crime to “defame” the Russian military or spread “deliberately false information.”
On Monday, he and 15 former winners of the Nobel Prize for Peace, Literature and Science sent an open letter to Putin, Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the European Union, calling for the release or exchange of political prisoners as part of the proposed deal.
“Look, they talk about money, deals, rare earths, and frontiers, but have you ever heard anyone talk about people before?” Muratov, a newspaper editor who still lives and works in Russia despite being labeled a “foreign agent” by authorities, told Reuters in a video interview.
“I don’t really know what Putin has in mind, forgive me… I only know that people are dying in prisons and need to be saved,” he said.
Pictures of prisoners
During the conversation, he showed before-and-after photos showing how several prominent Russian dissidents, including activist Alexei Gorenov, theater director Xenia Berkovich and saxophonist Andrei Shabanov, had visibly aged in prison and suffered health damage.
“I will show you how (these) people are now. So that no one has the slightest doubt that many of them simply will not survive. They will die if the international community – Zelensky, Putin, Trump, the European Union – does not decide the fate of these people now,” Muratov said.
“How many faces do I have to show (to you) politicians in negotiations to say yes, let’s also talk about human rights to life, dignity and freedom?”
The Kremlin does not comment on individual cases. He says Russia needs to maintain its laws to deal with people involved in what it sees as subversive activity against the state, and to be treated appropriately in the criminal system.
Trump has not publicly called for the release of political prisoners in Russia. This contrasts with his position on Belarus, where President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, called for the release of more than a thousand people he described as hostages.
However, he committed to repatriating American citizens imprisoned in Russia, many of whom were released during his second term. In a major prisoner swap between East and West last year under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, 16 people – including US citizens Ivan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, as well as some prominent Russian dissidents – were released from Russian and Belarusian prisons, while Moscow took back eight prisoners held in the West.
“Let’s watch your behavior.”
In their appeal, the 16 Nobel laureates said they hoped the current negotiations would bring an end to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
“We are confident that if Messrs. Putin and Zelensky show good faith and mutual pardon for at least a few dozen prisoners who have been imprisoned solely for expressing their personal opinions and who have not committed violent crimes, this will accelerate the emergence of a lasting and just peace,” they said.
The letter referred to more than 1,000 people detained in Russian prisons on charges of committing political crimes. The letter did not mention the number of prisoners in Ukraine, including people convicted of treason or cooperation with Moscow.
“As long as we do not put people at the center of politics, wars will continue,” Muratov said.