Teenage prisoner swapped by Russia felt like ‘hostage’

Clutching a toothbrush and toothpaste, Kevin Lik waited for six hours in the primary workplace of penal colony 14, close to Arkhangelsk in Russia’s far north-west. It was late within the night of Sunday 28 July, and the 19-year-old says he had no thought what was about to occur.

“Maybe you’re taking me to be shot,” he mentioned to the governor of the colony.

“Don’t fear, every little thing will probably be effective,” got here the reply.

Kevin says he was informed the identical factor by an officer from Russia’s FSB state safety company a 12 months and a half in the past, earlier than they locked him up.

“I misplaced quite a lot of weight within the colony,” he explains shyly, as we communicate on a video name. Kevin is about 6ft 4in tall (1.9m) however weighs solely 11 stone (70kg).

Along with American journalist Evan Gershkovich, he’s considered one of 16 folks launched by Russia on 1 August in a prisoner swap with the US and different Western nations.

The teenager – with twin Russian and German citizenship – was arrested final 12 months whereas nonetheless at college and have become the youngest individual in trendy Russian historical past to have been convicted of treason.

I ask if he considers himself extra Russian or German. “It’s a really sophisticated query,” he replies.

Kevin was born in 2005 in Montabaur, a small city within the west of Germany. His Russian mom, Victoria, had married a German citizen and, though the wedding didn’t final, she and her son stayed.

They visited Russia each couple of years till Victoria determined she needed to return completely – she missed her family members and hometown of Maykop within the North Caucasus. Kevin was 12 once they made the transfer there in 2017.

They lived on the outskirts of city, in an condo with views of mountains and a army base. Kevin says he liked walks within the countryside and accumulating crops for his herbarium, and in addition finding out at college.

He enthusiastically reveals me certificates from nationwide and native tutorial competitions that he received.

It was the 2018 Russian presidential election that sparked his curiosity in politics, he says. His mom – a public sector healthcare employee – would come residence and say she and her colleagues had been bussed to polling stations the place they had been informed: “Vote for Putin, or we’ll take away your bonus.”

He was solely 12 on the time, however says he understood “there was nearly no democracy in Russia”.

Kevin was enraged that nearly each classroom in his faculty had a portrait of Putin.

“They consistently informed us that faculty shouldn’t be a spot for politics. It’s simply not proper to hold portraits and promote a character cult like that,” he says.

A 12 months or so later, he precipitated a scandal when he swapped a faculty portrait of Putin for considered one of opposition chief Alexei Navalny.

“One trainer mentioned that in Stalin’s time, I might have been shot,” Kevin remembers – whereas a sympathetic trainer, he says, suggested him to watch out.

His mom was known as to the college: “They scolded her, yelled at her,” he says.

The BBC has requested the college for remark, however has not had a response.

As Kevin approached his closing faculty 12 months, his mom determined they need to transfer again to Germany.

By this time, Russia had invaded Ukraine and, with a view to depart the nation completely, Kevin’s identify needed to be faraway from the army register.

Victoria was invited to the enlistment workplace to kind out her son’s paperwork. When she received there on 9 February 2023, the police met her. Kevin says they groundlessly accused her of swearing in public. She was sentenced to 10 days’ detention, which meant they needed to delay their plans to go away.

Left alone, Kevin stopped going to highschool. He ventured out for a couple of hours someday, and says that when he returned to the condo “issues had been moved round”.

When Victoria was launched, they tried to get to Germany by heading south to town of Sochi, which has a global airport. After checking right into a lodge, Kevin says they went out for a snack and he seen a person in a medical masks and hoodie filming them on his telephone. Within seconds, he says a minibus pulled up.

“Eight or 9 FSB officers jumped out. One grabbed me by the arm. Another got here up, confirmed his ID, and mentioned: ‘A legal case has been opened in opposition to you below article 275: treason.’

“My eyes had been large with shock.”

The minibus took them to the lodge, the place they collected their baggage. On the way in which again to Maykop they had been put in a automotive with out licence plates and brought to a pizzeria.

“They ordered pizza and provided us some. They didn’t handcuff me or restrain me. I used to be pondering every little thing over in my head however couldn’t perceive how I had dedicated treason,” says Kevin.

He requested if he could be put in jail. “Don’t fear, every little thing will probably be effective,” got here the response.

Kevin remembered a former FSB operative, Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for killing a person in Berlin on Kremlin orders. He began questioning if Russia deliberate to make use of him – a German citizen – “as a hostage” to get Krasikov again.

They received residence in the midst of the night time. He reveals me the video FSB officers made as they searched the condo. They discovered a damaged telescope – an previous birthday current from his mom.

The authorities suspected he had used it to {photograph} army autos from his window to ship to German intelligence. They took his telephone and laptop computer and located photos of the bottom.

Kevin freely admits he took the images however says he had no intention of passing them on to anybody.

At 03:00, Kevin was taken to the native FSB constructing for interrogation. Because he was solely 17, his mom went with him. He was scared.

Kevin says the lawyer assigned to him informed him immediately that he ought to confess to cut back the sentence.

As we communicate, he reels off particulars of Russia’s legal code and makes use of authorized phrases to clarify why he was wrongfully accused. But, again then, he had no thought deal with the scenario.

A confession had already been typed and Kevin agreed to signal it, which he later regretted. He says he was afraid if he didn’t signal, issues would have “received worse as a result of they may have began pressuring my mum”. The FSB investigator informed them he had the ability to grab their condo, says Kevin.

“The testimony was absolute nonsense,” he says. “It’s a chess recreation, it was clear there was no justice.”

Because he was nonetheless a minor, he was taken to a particular facility two hours’ drive away in Krasnodar and positioned in a solitary cell. He had been up all night time however couldn’t sleep.

“They introduced me meals however I couldn’t eat it. I actually needed to see my mum.”

A number of months later, when he turned 18, he was moved to a distinct jail on the outskirts of Krasnodar the place he blended with different inmates.

Kevin says he was left terrified after a gaggle of inmates beat him up. “They tied my fingers, beat me, and even put out a cigarette on me. They hit me so laborious within the chest I couldn’t breathe.”

All this time, the authorities continued to research him. His class trainer testified in opposition to him, claiming that once they had gone to a tutorial competitors in Moscow Kevin had needed to go to the German embassy to contact intelligence officers. Kevin tells me all he needed was to get an official German ID, as a result of he had turned 16.

A Ministry of Defence skilled analysed the images Kevin had taken and concluded they did not represent a state secret however, in international fingers, might have harmed Russia.

The FSB file on him additionally included particulars of childhood journeys to Russia, together with one when he was two years previous. Kevin says he additionally discovered his telephone had been tapped as early as 2021.

Ten months after Kevin’s arrest, on the finish of December 2023, he was discovered responsible of treason and sentenced to 4 years in a penal colony.

Apart from his mum, no-one he knew from Maykop contacted him after his arrest, however after the media reported his case, strangers started writing.

“The letters helped me quite a bit,” he says. “On my birthday, I obtained 60 playing cards. I made it my aim to answer to every individual.”

The letters and playing cards had been later confiscated.

Kevin’s journey to the penal colony in Arkhangelsk took a month, by way of a number of different prisons. He arrived there on the finish of June this 12 months. In these following weeks, he says he handed the time by studying and finding out.

Suddenly, as he was leaving the bathtub home on Tuesday 23 July, he was approached by a senior jail officer and informed he had 20 minutes to “urgently write a petition” for a presidential pardon, which he did.

Then, on the twenty eighth, a jail officer stopped him and informed him to get his toothbrush, toothpaste and slippers.

“Usually, you get this equipment once they’re about to place you within the punishment cell,” explains Kevin. But as a substitute, he was locked in an workplace.

At 01:00 on the morning of Monday twenty ninth, a convoy arrived to take him away.

The considered being exchanged was behind Kevin’s thoughts, however appeared too good to be true.

He was flown to Moscow, the place he was saved in jail till Thursday 1 August, when he was placed on a aircraft with the opposite prisoners who had been being swapped.

It was by no means spelled out to him that he was being exchanged, he says, however by the point he was within the air sure for Turkey it was clear what was occurring.

As Kevin had long-suspected, murderer Vadim Krasikov was amongst these being returned to Russia.

In Germany, after a hospital check-up, Kevin was lastly capable of greet his mom, who had received a visa to fly in from Russia.

“She cried. I informed her every little thing was effective, to not fear, that I liked her very a lot.”

Mother and son are actually dwelling in Germany and Kevin is filled with enthusiasm to complete faculty.

“I haven’t got a need for revenge, however I do have a really robust need to take part in opposition actions,” he tells me.

Kevin nonetheless has his jail uniform, stuffed in a bag within the nook of his room.

When I ask what he needed most of all whereas he was pressured to put on it, he merely replies: “To hug Mum in fact.”