By Mark Trevelyan
LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - As a U.S. envoy heads to Moscow to negotiate over a complex blueprint for peace in Ukraine, Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov says a vital element is missing from the agenda.
Borders, security guarantees, the fate of frozen Russian assets and the prospects for joint U.S.-Russian investment ventures are all expected to be on the table when President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff sits down with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
But Muratov is worried about the fate of people - above all, the hundreds imprisoned in Russia under censorship laws passed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that made it a crime to "discredit" the Russian army or spread "deliberately false information".
On Monday he and 15 other past winners of Nobel prizes for peace, literature and the sciences sent an open letter to Putin, Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the European Union, calling for a release or exchange of political prisoners to form part of the proposed deal.
"Look, they're talking about money, deals, rare earth metals, borders, but have you ever heard anyone talk about people?" Muratov, a newspaper editor who continues to live and work in Russia despite being labelled a "foreign agent" by the authorities, told Reuters in a video interview.
"I really don't know what's going on in Putin's head, forgive me... I only know that people are dying in prisons, and they need to be saved," he said.
PHOTOS OF PRISONERS
During the conversation, he held up before and after photographs showing how several prominent Russian dissidents, including activist Alexei Gorinov, theatre director Zhenya Berkovich and saxophonist Andrei Shabanov, have visibly aged in prison and suffered damage to their health.
"I will show you what (these) people look like now. So that no one has any doubt that many simply will not survive. They will die if the international community — Zelenskiy, Putin, Trump and the European Union — don't decide the fate of these people now," Muratov said.
"How many faces do I have to show (you) so that politicians at the negotiations will say 'yes, let's also talk about the human rights to life, dignity, and freedom?'"
The Kremlin does not comment on individual cases. It says Russia needs to uphold its laws to deal with people engaged in what it regards as subversive activity against the state, and that they are appropriately treated in the penal system.
Trump has not publicly called for the release of political prisoners in Russia. That stands in contrast with his stance on Belarus, where he has urged President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, to free more than 1,000 people he describes as hostages.
He has, however, stated a commitment to bring home American citizens jailed in Russia, of whom several have been released during his second presidency. In a major East-West prisoner exchange last year under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden, 16 people - including U.S. citizens Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, as well as some prominent Russian dissidents - were released from Russian and Belarusian jails, while Moscow got back eight prisoners held in the West.
'WE WILL MONITOR THEIR ACTIONS'
In their appeal, the 16 Nobel laureates said they were hopeful the current negotiations could bring an end to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two.
"We are confident that if Messrs. Putin and Zelenskiy demonstrate goodwill and mutually pardon at least a few dozen prisoners who are imprisoned merely for expressing their personal opinions and who have not committed violent crimes, this will hasten the advent of a lasting and just peace," they said.
The letter referred to more than 1,000 people held in Russian prisons for political crimes. It did not put a figure on the number jailed in Ukraine, who include people sentenced for treason or for collaborating with Moscow.
The signatories included peace laureates Jose Ramos-Horta, Jody Williams, Maria Ressa and Yan Rachinsky and literature winner Svetlana Alexievich.
"Until we put people at the centre of politics, wars will continue," said Muratov.
He said he hoped U.S. First Lady Melania Trump - who has intervened with Putin to seek the repatriation of Ukrainian children whom Kyiv accuses Russia of abducting - would support the initiative to free political prisoners, which he said was in the tradition of Russian-American relations dating back decades.
He told Reuters he believed that the negotiators would listen.
"I am confident that they will hear this letter, and then we will see how they act. We will monitor their actions."
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
