To go back to the exchanges, nobody would include prisoners in international exchanges if these prisoners were not known. The only way these exchanges, such as the one that freed me and the one that freed hundreds of political prisoners from Belarus last year, for example.... As you know, this was led by the current American government, for all the many questions about it. It did this. Hundreds of political prisoners from Belarus have been released as a result of the actions of the current U.S. administration. The only reason this happened is that people like Maria Kolesnikova, Sergei Tikhanovsky and Ales Bialiatski were known, talked about and the subject of international attention.
Please don't let any cynic ever tell you that this—all of these hearings and all of these resolutions—is unimportant. Why do you talk about these things? They save human lives, and I'm living proof of that.