Moscow – 9 September 2019
1. Various of journalist Kirill Vyshinsky, Russian prisoner who was released as part of prisoner swap with Ukraine on Saturday, walking with Dmitry Kiselyov, head of the Rossiya Segodnya media group and greeting colleagues
2. Woman holding poster with picture of Vyshinsky reading (Russian) "Welcome, Kirill!"
3. Wide of group of journalists
4. Kiselyov presenting Vyshinsky with a T-shirt, reading (Russian) "A journalist shouldn't be in prison."
5. Close of poster with picture of Vyshinsky reading (Russian) "Welcome, Kirill!"
6. Wide of news conference
7. Vyshinsky and Kiselyov sitting at table
8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Kirill Vyshinsky, Russian journalist:
"It's a tectonic shift (talking about the prisoner swap) in our relations (with Ukraine). At least, I would really like it to be the case. Because, let's be clear, (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy won thanks to the enormous expectations of the people for peace and reconciliation inside the country, so that they would actually stop shooting. And of course, everyone is waiting for this."
9. Cutaways of reporter asking question
10. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Kirill Vyshinsky, Russian journalist:
"When I saw the indictments against me by SBU (Ukrainian Security Service), I realised that there wouldn't be any kind of real trial based on these indictments. They had another aim: I had to be kept in prison in order to be exchanged later. Moreover, they planned not only to exchange me, but to use me to exert pressure."
11. Cutaway of news conference
12. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Kirill Vyshinsky, Russian journalist:
"I don't think that PR (talking about Zelenskiy greeting Ukrainian prisoners at the airport in Kyiv) has anything to do with humanism. From my point of view, the exchange of the people who were by my side (in the airplane) was an act of humanism that was being fought for. And the men of conscription age walking down the ramp were...well, the men of conscription age understand the responsibility they bear, inclining the military (responsibilities), when they have carried out some acts. But I don't know what crimes the women who arrived with me committed."
13. Vyshinsky getting up and hugging colleague as news conference comes to end
Russian journalist Kirill Vyshinsky, who was part of a major prisoner exchange with Ukraine, said on Monday that the weekend swap marked a "tectonic shift" in Russia's relations with Kyiv.
Vyshinsky, who is head of the Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti's Ukraine branch, had been jailed since 2018 on treason charges.
He arrived at a briefing on Monday alongside Dmitry Kiselyov, head of the Rossiya Segodnya media group that includes the RIA-Novosti agency.
Vyshinsky was greeted by fellow journalists and was presented with a T-shirt bearing the slogan: "A journalist shouldn't be in prison".
It's a tectonic shift (talking about the prisoner swap) in our relations (with Ukraine). At least, I would really like it to be the case," he said at the news briefing.
Russia and Ukraine each sent 35 freed prisoners as part of the swap, in a move that could be a significant step toward easing Russia-Ukraine relations and raise chances for resolving the fighting in Ukraine's east.
The prisoners included some of the highest-profile figures in the long conflict between Kyiv and Moscow, including Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian film director whose imprisonment on a conviction of preparing terrorist attacks was strongly denounced abroad and 24 Ukrainian sailors seized last year by the Russian navy.
Among those released by Ukraine was Volodymyr Tsemakh, who commanded a separatist rebel air defense unit in the area where a Malaysian airliner was shot down in 2014, killing all 298 people aboard.
Dutch investigators probing the aircraft's downing have wanted to question Tsemakh and dozens of Ukrainian lawmakers last week urged Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy against trading him.
