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Russia on Thursday freed American journalist Evan Gershkovich and retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan as part of the largest East-West prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal was negotiated in secret for more than a year.
The White House said the United States had negotiated the complex deal with Russia and other countries. The White House said eight prisoners held in Western countries would be sent back to Russia.
Germany confirmed that they included Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted of murdering an exiled dissident in Berlin.
President Joe Biden hailed the deal as a “feat of diplomacy and friendship” and praised Washington’s allies for making a “bold and courageous decision.”
“This would not have been possible without our allies,” he said, adding: “Today is a powerful example of why it is so important to have friends in this world.”
Turkey, which coordinated the swap, said 10 people, including two children, were transferred to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the United States. Also participating were Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus.
“After completing the approval process and health checks of all parties… the prisoners were placed on board the aircraft to the country they were to travel to, with the approval and instructions of the MIT,” the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) said in a statement.
Reuters reporters saw a Russian government plane take off from Ankara.
The Kremlin said Moscow’s decision to pardon and release prisoners was intended to bring Russian captives home.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a vocal supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine that has led to the arrest of hundreds of critics and plunged Russia’s relations with Washington to their lowest level since the Cold War, wrote scathingly in a Telegram post:
“Let the traitors now eagerly choose new names and actively disguise themselves under the witness protection program.”
Russian dissident released
In the last large-scale swap in 2010, the two sides exchanged a total of 14 prisoners.
In December 2022, Russia exchanged American basketball star Brittney Griner (who was sentenced to nine years in prison for carrying e-cigarette cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage) for arms dealer Viktor Bout (who served a 25-year sentence in the United States)
Krasikov, a colonel in Russia’s FSB security service, is serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in a Berlin park.
Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has said he wants Krasikov back, and the German government, commenting on the swap deal, said releasing Krasikov “was not an easy decision”.
Rico Krieger, a German who had been sentenced to death in Belarus on terrorism charges, was released on Tuesday after being pardoned by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin.
Also released was Russian-British dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason for telling the Arizona House of Representatives in March 2022 that Putin was bombing homes, hospitals and schools in Ukraine.
Also released with him were human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Russian opposition politician Ilya Yasin.
Many of those freed had worked with Russia’s leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who died in unexplained circumstances in an Arctic penal colony in February.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, vowed to continue his work and called his release “a great blessing.”
“Every political prisoner released is a huge victory and joy. No one deserves to be kidnapped by Putin, tortured and die in Putin’s prisons,” she wrote on X.
There is little sign of a full thaw in US-Russia relations
The massive exchange came in the final months after Biden gave up his re-election bid and nearly four years after tensions between the two countries escalated sharply over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Administration officials said the multinational agreement appeared to be a one-time quid pro quo and did not represent an easing of tensions between the nuclear powers.
The people released from the United States are Roman Seleznev, Vladimir Klyushin and Vadim Konoshenok.
In the West, governments and activists view dissidents as political prisoners who have been wrongfully detained. Moscow labels them dangerous extremists for different reasons.
A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians to prison for espionage and using false identities and said they would be deported. Both were on an official U.S. list of deportees to Russia.
Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, posted an open letter on the X platform, saying: “Today is a happy day as our colleague Evan Gershkovich has just left a Russian plane in Ankara, Turkey, and returned safely as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia…
“We are grateful to President Biden and his administration for their perseverance and determination to bring Evan home rather than sending him to a Russian labor camp for a crime he did not commit.”
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