Those released by Russia included US journalist Evan Gerschkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan. The Russians released by Western nations included convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov, who had been serving a life sentence in Germany for killing a Georgian-born Chechen dissident in a Berlin park. On Friday, Mr Kara-Murza and Mr …

A historic prisoner swap has freed 24 prisoners from seven countries – three of whom have now returned to the US. In the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War, journalist Evan Gershkovich, marine Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva were returned safely to US soil. President Joe Biden …

Oleg Orlov is a Russian human rights activist who was jailed in February for calling Russia a fascist state and criticising the war in Ukraine. He was previously the chair of the Nobel Prize-winning organisation Memorial. The 71-year-old was handed a two-and-a-half-year term for “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian armed forces. …

“This is a matter best dealt with in silence.” It’s the phrase of choice of Russian officials when asked to comment on possible East-West prisoner exchanges. Words we’ve been hearing for months. This is how the Kremlin likes it: deal-making behind closed doors, “hostage diplomacy” far from the media spotlight. …

Speaking to the BBC, he compared the structures to a penal colony. He also doubted the ability of night-time rescuers to properly screen those picked up to ensure that no vulnerable individuals are sent to Albania. “They won’t be able to delve deep into whether somebody has suffered torture or …

But the film produced no direct evidence of that and there were multiple oddities and inconsistencies in the account. It ended with Mr Krieger making a sobbing plea for help from the German government. Now he’s been pardoned, state media are full of praise for Mr Lukashenko’s “merciful” nature and …

His latest data estimates that about 40% of visitors were from outside Kosovo – noting that will be strongly influenced by the country’s diaspora as those with family connections here bring friends with them. Some had travelled as far from Chicago in the US to see artists like Bebe Rexha, …

The EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency is calling for more investigations of alleged human rights abuses of migrants and refugees by the authorities at the EU’s borders, including those in the Balkans, the Mediterranean and the English Channel. In a new report, the agency, known as FRA, said that despite “the …

In a statement on Monday, the Greek agriculture ministry said the ban had been introduced “with the aim of limiting the spread and eradication of the disease”. It said that livestock farmers, cheesemakers, slaughterhouse owners and feed suppliers had been informed about the new restrictions. At the weekend, ministry officials …

The acts of sabotage paralysed high-speed TGV lines running to and from Paris and heavily disrupted travel in France. On Monday morning, France’s Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin said that a “number of profiles of people who could have committed these very deliberate, very targeted acts of sabotage” had …

SNCF said staff have been working around the clock to manually repair fibre optic cables, which were targeted on the North, Brittany and South-West lines. Rail workers foiled an attempt to destroy safety equipment on a fourth line. On Sunday, the rail company said the main western line from Paris …

On a remote farm in Siberia, a man handed Ada a knife. In front of them was a pig. “Cut it off,” he said. “If you want to go ahead with the operation, you need to understand what castration means.” Ada was 23 and transgender – she had been tricked …

“If it had to happen, if I had to lose this ring, I couldn’t imagine a better place,” he wrote, claiming the ring will now “remain forever in the riverbed of the city of love”. He called the bad luck “poetic” and suggested they throw Chiara’s ring in the river …

In a statement issued on Friday evening, SNCF said traffic “would improve” on affected lines on Saturday thanks to the work of thousands of rail workers. It said: On the eastern line, trains would run normally from 06:00 (05:00 BST) on Saturday On the northern line, 80% of trains would …

“I will give you no information,” Vladimir Gorbach, the lawyer who represented Krieger in court, told me by phone. Then he added: “Watch Belarusian official TV. It’s all written there.” Rico Krieger’s trial appears to have concluded in June. But state-controlled media were silent about this case for weeks. Independent …

When organisers first revealed plans to hold the opening ceremony along the river in the heart of the city, rather than in a stadium as is usual, there were some raised eyebrows and questions over how they would manage such a huge security operation. The Seine itself had been under …

Earlier this year, the interior minister warned of an extremely high “external” threat, potentially of the type of jihadist attack that was inflicted on the Crocus City Hall in Moscow in March. France has fallen victim in recent years to a wave of deadly jihadist attacks, but none resemble the …

Many reacted angrily last month when the media revealed that three soldiers patrolling the border had been detained and handcuffed after they fired more than forty warning shots towards a group of migrants who were breaking through the border fence. Shortly afterwards, Mr Tusk announced plans to re-introduce the exclusion …

Prof Tara Spires-Jones, president of the British Neuroscience Association, said the EMA’s decision will come as “a disappointment to many”. But she said there were reasons to remain hopeful. “Lecanemab has shown that it is possible to slow down disease progression, and research does work. Now we need to ramp …

But who would want to ruin the plans of hundreds of thousands of French travellers and disrupt the start of the Olympic Games? One security source suggested in French media that the arson attacks bore all the hallmarks of the extreme left. However, Mr Attal has refused to speculate who …