Russian prisoner freed in swap urges UK not to let hundreds more ‘die off’

“There can be nothing more valuable, more important for democracy, than human life,” he said at a press conference at the Royal United Services Institute. “I know what it’s like just to wake up every morning in a cell two by three metres, four walls, a small window covered by bars, just essentially walking in a small circle all day, staring at walls. You have no one to speak to, nothing to do, no one to go to and this is how the rest of your life is going to continue … This is not just a question of unjust imprisonment, although that in itself would be unacceptable … it’s a question, very literally, of life or death.”