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 concept what was about to occur.

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

“Don’t fret, all the pieces can be advantageous,” got here the reply.

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

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

Together 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 international locations.

{The teenager} – with twin Russian and German citizenship – was arrested final yr whereas nonetheless in school and have become the youngest particular person in trendy Russian historical past to have been convicted of treason.

I ask if he considers himself extra Russian or German. “It is a very difficult 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 relations and hometown of Maykop within the North Caucasus. Kevin was 12 after 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 amassing vegetation for his herbarium, and in addition learning in school.

He enthusiastically exhibits 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 house and say she and her colleagues had been bussed to polling stations the place they have been instructed: “Vote for Putin, or we’ll take away your bonus.”

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

Kevin was enraged that just about each classroom in his college had a portrait of Putin.

“They always instructed us that college is just not a spot for politics. It’s simply not proper to hold portraits and promote a character cult like that,” he says.

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

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

His mom was referred to 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 last college yr, his mom determined they need to transfer again to Germany.

By this time, Russia had invaded Ukraine and, so as to depart the nation completely, Kevin’s title needed to be faraway from the army register.

Victoria was invited to the enlistment workplace to kind out her son’s paperwork. When she bought 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 high school. 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 the town of Sochi, which has a world airport. After checking right into a resort, Kevin says they went out for a snack and he observed a person in a medical masks and hoodie filming them on his cellphone. Inside seconds, he says a minibus pulled up.

“Eight or 9 FSB officers jumped out. One grabbed me by the arm. One other got here up, confirmed his ID, and mentioned: ‘A felony case has been opened towards you beneath article 275: treason.’

“My eyes have been extensive with shock.”

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

“They ordered pizza and supplied us some. They didn’t handcuff me or restrain me. I used to be pondering all the pieces 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, all the pieces can be advantageous,” 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 bought house in the midst of the night time. He exhibits 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 automobiles from his window to ship to German intelligence. They took his cellphone and laptop computer and located footage of the bottom.

Kevin freely admits he took the pictures 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. As a result of he was solely 17, his mom went with him. He was scared.

Kevin says the lawyer assigned to him instructed him right away that he ought to confess to cut back the sentence.

As we converse, he reels off particulars of Russia’s felony code and makes use of authorized phrases to clarify why he was wrongfully accused. However, again then, he had no concept tips on how to deal with the state of affairs.

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 “bought worse as a result of they might have began pressuring my mum”. The FSB investigator instructed 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.”

As a result of 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 unique jail on the outskirts of Krasnodar the place he combined 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 exhausting within the chest I couldn’t breathe.”

All this time, the authorities continued to analyze him. His class instructor testified towards him, claiming that after they had gone to an instructional 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 professional analysed the pictures 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 came upon his cellphone 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.

Aside 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 lots,” he says. “On my birthday, I obtained 60 playing cards. I made it my objective to answer to every particular person.”

The letters and playing cards have been later confiscated.

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

All of the sudden, as he was leaving the tub home on Tuesday 23 July, he was approached by a senior jail officer and instructed 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 instructed him to get his toothbrush, toothpaste and slippers.

“Often, you get this equipment after they’re about to place you within the punishment cell,” explains Kevin. However 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 stored in jail till Thursday 1 August, when he was placed on a aircraft with the opposite prisoners who have 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 certain 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 bought a visa to fly in from Russia.

“She cried. I instructed her all the pieces was advantageous, to not fear, that I liked her very a lot.”

Mom and son at the moment are residing in Germany and Kevin is stuffed with enthusiasm to complete college.

“I haven’t got a need for revenge, however I do have a really sturdy 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.

After I ask what he needed most of all whereas he was compelled to put on it, he merely replies: “To hug Mum after all.”