(Image credit: Antonina Favorskaya for Novaya Gazeta)
Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin has rejected an offer of political asylum from the German authorities, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Yashin, who was released from prison in Russia earlier this month as part of the largest ever prisoner swap between Russia and the West, said that he couldn’t accept the status of a political refugee as that would make it impossible for him to return to Russia. He said he had applied for a residence permit in the country instead.
Yashin, tipped by many to be the most likely successor to Alexey Navalny as the unofficial leader of Russia’s exiled political opposition, also told Bloomberg that he planned to lobby European officials to expand sanctions against people associated with Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Read the full article here on Novaya Gazeta Europe
