Ilya Yashin

Russian opposition leaders Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, along with Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of imprisoned politician Alexei Navalny, are set to organize an anti-war rally in Berlin on November 17. The demonstration comes in the wake of their recent release during a significant prisoner exchange between Russia and the West.

Yulia Navalnay, the wife of Alexei Navalny, expressed both joy and bitterness over the Cold War-style prisoner swap that freed prominent Russian dissidents last week.

The prisoner exchange between Russia and the West, which took place on Thursday in Istanbul, resembled moments from the Cold War, complete with the dramatic setting of an isolated airport area.

From Russia, 16 people were released: four to the U.S. and 12 to Germany, one of whom was Belarusian.

Russian police on March 13 arrested around 200 opposition politicians and municipal deputies at a Moscow conference as authorities tighten the screws on Kremlin critics ahead of parliamentary elections.

Murdered Russian oppositioner Boris Nemtsov was working on a report allegedly containing evidence of Russia's direct involvement in Ukraine's unrest, according to Nemtsov's fellow colleagues.

Ilya Yashin, an activist who had close ties to Nemtsov, told Ekho Moskvy radio he had spoken to Nemtsov two days before his killing on Thursday evening.

Russian opposition politician and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov has been shot dead in central Moscow.

Nemtsov was shot four times in the back by an unknown attacker, according to a law enforcement source, as cited by the Interfax news agency.

The killer is said to have escaped in a car.

The incident happened at around 23:40 local time near the Kremlin.