BRAVE British political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza has been finally freed from a Russian jail today as part of a historic swap deal.
The 42-year-old was serving a horrific 25-year prison sentence for “treason” where he managed to dodge death twice during his spell behind bars in a Siberian hellhole.
The former prisoner - who has both Russian and British citizenship - was sentenced to prison after strong criticism of Putin's chilling regime.
Kara-Murza has also slammed the Russian president for his horror invasion of Ukraine.
He was arrested in April 2022 before being sentenced a year later in a “show trial”.
He has spent the last year in a maximum-security prison where his loved ones claim he has been treated horrifically.
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The Brit's health has been reportedly dwindling during his prison stint after he says was poisoned twice by Putin’s brutal secret service.
Human rights campaigner Sir Bill Browder warned earlier this year: “If he is not released soon, it is likely he will die in a Russian prison.”
Fears of a planned Russian assassination were ramped up when Kara-Murza's ally Alexei Navalny was found dead inside his jail.
Navalny, 47, was seen as Putin's biggest critic alongside Kara-Murza.
When Navalny was found dead in suspicious circumstances Kara-Murza released a heartfelt message for the people of Russia.
He said: “Vladimir Putin personally bears responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny because Alexei was his personal prisoner."
“He must be stopped and only Russian society itself can do this.”
He went on to warn that Putin was a “vengeful, cowardly, greedy old man" who "still holds on with a death grip, destroying anyone in whom he sees a threat to his power."
Just last month, Kara-Murza's lawyer voiced concerns over his health after he claimed his client vanished without a trace after he was taken to a penal hospital.
The lawyer says he wasn't allowed to contact the Brit and had no idea where he was.
Innocent American journalist Evan Gershkovich was also finally freed today.
Evan, 32, faced an outrageous 16 years in jail after a sham trial where he was wrongly accused by Vladimir Putin's crooked regime of collecting "secret information" for the CIA.
A Russian government plane was seen at Ankara Airport in Turkey today where the journalist was one of dozens of political prisoners to be released.
The swap involved 23 other prisoners in Russian jails - including former US marine Paul Whelan and British-Russian journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Today's exchange is one of the largest and most complicated swaps between the West and Russia in history.
The US, Russia and Germany were all involved in the large scale operation.
The Wall Street Journal said after Evan's release on Thursday afternoon: "Gershkovich and other Americans left Russian aircraft moments ago at an airport in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
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"Russia had kept the 32-year-old behind bars for more than a year on a false allegation of espionage.
"It sentenced him in a hurried and secret three-day trial to 16 years in a high-security penal colony."
