Finally free Photos from the hospital where Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, and other political prisoners released by Moscow were sent after arriving in Germany

On August 1, 2024, Russia and multiple Western countries carried out the largest prisoner swap of its kind since the end of the Cold War. Thirteen of the political prisoners freed by Moscow were flown to Germany, where they were immediately sent to a military hospital in the city of Koblenz for medical evaluations. The former inmates were issued hospital wear, though it didn’t fit everybody, so some of them stayed in their prison uniforms. Meduza photographer Evgeny Feldman went to the hospital to document his compatriots’ first hours of freedom.

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