France urges Moscow to release others ‘arbitrarily’ detained in Russia

French researcher Laurent Vinatier, who is suspected of illegally collecting sensitive Russian military information, sits inside an enclosure for defendants before a court hearing in Moscow on July 31, 2024. (Reuters)

• Academic Laurent Vinatier is accused of gathering Russian military information without registering as a ‘foreign agent’
• Vladimir Putin ramped up a historic crackdown on dissent after invading Ukraine in February 2022

PARIS: France on Friday welcomed a historic prisoner swap between Russia and the West and urged Moscow to set free French citizen Laurent Vinatier and other people still “arbitrarily” detained in the country.
“France shares the sentiment of the families and allied governments following the release of several political prisoners held in Russia,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with those who remain arbitrarily detained in Russia, including our compatriot Laurent Vinatier. France calls for their immediate release.”
France said it paid tribute “to the courage of the men and women who, in Russia as elsewhere, defend freedom of speech and opinion despite the risks involved.”
In the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, 10 Russians were traded for 16 Westerners and Russians imprisoned in Russia in a dramatic exchange on the airport tarmac in Turkiye’s capital Ankara on Thursday.
US officials said that the swap should have included the leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny, but he was suddenly pronounced dead in his remote Arctic prison in February just as the secret talks were at a crucial stage.
In the statement, Paris singled out Navalny, reiterating that “Russian authorities must be held to account” for the death of Vladimir Putin’s charismatic critic.
Academic Vinatier, 48, is accused of gathering Russian military information without registering as a “foreign agent.” He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted.
Putin ramped up a historic crackdown on dissent after invading Ukraine in February 2022, with hundreds of political prisoners and arbitrarily detained people held in prisons across the country, according to human rights activists.
Among them are theater director Yevgeniya Berkovich and writer Svetlana Petriychuk, historian Yury Dmitriev, journalist Ivan Safronov and Arseny Turbin, a teenage Navalny supporter.