but while vladimir kara-murza expected to die in vladimir putin's gulag, just as his friend and fellowst year, last august, kara-murza found himself suddenly released as part of the largest prisoner swap since the cold war. after two years in prison, vladimir and evgenia kara-murza and their family were welcomed to the white house by president biden, and vladimir kara-murza has been working steadily since his release, lobbying the west to take stronger action against putin and vladimir and evgeniya kara-murza. join me now. and i just said this to you privately in the green room. i will say it to you again. it is such a relief to see you, because the last time i saw you actually sitting exactly in the position we are now, i asked you why you would even think to go back to russia. number one, why on earth did you go? and how surprised were you when you were released? >> well, look, i'm a russian politician. a politician has to be in his or her own country. cannot be any other way. i mean, we did found out during covid that a lot of professions can be done remotely or by zoom, but politic

my guest is vladimir kara—murza, the anti—putin activist, poisoned, thenjailed before being freed in isoner swap last year. putin can seemingly rely on the quiescence of the russian people. but for how long? vladimir kara—murza, in washington dc, welcome to hardtalk. hello, stephen. it's very good to be on your programme. it is great to see you there in washington. you, of course, have had pretty much six months now to get used to being a free man. are you used to it? well, frankly, it's still feels a little bit surreal because, you know, up untiljust a few months ago i was pretty certain that i was going to die in that siberian prison. and the prisoner exchange that happened on the 1st of august was a miracle — this is the only way i can express it. but it was in so many ways a human—made miracle because it was made possible by the relentless advocacy, by the relentless efforts of so many people of goodwill in the democratic world who never stopped speaking up for the political prisoners who are languishing injails in putin's russia. and, while the 16 of us have been saved from that

my guest is vladimir kara—murza, the anti—putin activist, poisoned, thenjailed before being freed in