In a major, multinational swap of two dozen prisoners, Russia released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, and British-Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza on Thursday. These individuals had all been imprisoned unjustly in Russia, according to President Joe Biden, who addressed the nation from the White House alongside their family members. The group of released prisoners also included five German citizens and seven Russian citizens, all of whom had been held in Russian prisons on charges disputed by their home countries.
The Feat of Diplomacy that Secured Their Freedom
The release of these individuals was the result of a diplomatic negotiation that spanned several countries and involved complex, painstaking efforts. The swap also included the return of eight Russian citizens, including spy and convicted hitman Vadim Krasikov, from the United States, Slovenia, Norway, Poland, and Germany. Krasikov’s release from German custody, where he was being held for the murder of a former Chechen militant in Berlin in 2019, was crucial in persuading Russia to agree to the exchange.
White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan described the prisoner exchange as historic, comparing it to similar Cold War-era swaps involving a significant number of individuals. He emphasized the unprecedented collaboration between the United States and its allies in securing the release of the unjustly imprisoned individuals. The negotiations for the swap took many months and required the cooperation of multiple countries, marking a unique diplomatic achievement.
A small plane carrying Gershkovich, Whelan, and Kurmasheva touched down at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Thursday evening. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed the freed Americans, along with their family members, on the tarmac. Gershkovich, who had been arrested in Russia on espionage charges in 2023 and sentenced to 16 years in prison, was accused of collecting secret information about a defense enterprise under the instructions of U.S. intelligence services. Whelan, on the other hand, had been serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia for alleged espionage since his arrest in Moscow in 2018.
Apart from Gershkovich, Whelan, Kurmasheva, and Kara-Murza, several other individuals were part of the prisoner swap. The individuals being sent to Germany from Russian custody include Dieter Voronin, Kevin Lick, Rico Krieger, Patrick Schoebel, Herman Moyzhes, Ilya Yashin, Liliya Chanysheva, Kseniya Fadeyeva, Vadim Ostanin, Andrey Pivovarov, Oleg Orlov, and Sasha Skochilenko. Those being repatriated to Russia, along with Krasikov, are Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Anna Valerevna Dultseva from Slovenia, Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin from Norway, Pavel Alekseyevich Rubtsov from Poland, and Roman Seleznev, Vladislav Klyushin, and Vadim Konoshchenock from the United States.
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