As part of the exchange, the plane with Russian prisoners landed in Cologne. The arrivals were met by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. One of the released was the co-chairman of the Memorial center, former political prisoner Oleg Orlov.
After landing in Germany, Orlov called his lawyer Katerina Tertukhina and his wife Tatyana Kasatkina. According to him, no one asked him for consent for the exchange. When he was taken away from the pretrial detention center, nothing was explained to him. According to the human rights activist, only when they were put on a bus did he understand everything. Orlov did not ask for a pardon and did not sign any documents.
In February, Oleg Orlov was recognized as a foreign agent. At the same time, the Golovinsky Court of Moscow sentenced him to 2.5 years in prison under the article on "repeated discrediting" the army. The human rights activist was tried for an anti-war article in which he called Putin's regime "fascist." The investigation found in the article a motive of "ideological hostility to traditional Russian spiritual, moral and patriotic values," as well as a motive of hatred toward the social group "military personnel."
