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The United States and Russia completed the largest prisoner swap of the post-Soviet era on Thursday, with Moscow freeing Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, as well as dissidents such as Vladimir Karamurza, in a multinational deal involving more than two dozen people.
Gershkovic, Whelan and journalist Arsu Kurmasheva, who holds dual U.S. and Russian citizenship, arrived on U.S. soil shortly before midnight to be reunited with their families. They were greeted by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The exchange took place even as relations between Washington and Moscow are at their worst since the Cold War following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In talks held in secret, an exchange was explored in which Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was not present, but after his death in February, a 24-person deal was reached that required key concessions from European allies, including the release of a Russian murderer and guarantees of freedom for several journalists, accused spies, political prisoners and others.
Biden praised the exchange — the largest in a series with Russia so far — as a feat of diplomacy, while he welcomed family members of the freed Americans to the White House. But the deal, like others before it, reflects an imbalance: The United States and its allies repatriate Russians accused or convicted of serious crimes in exchange for Russia’s release of journalists, dissidents and others jailed by Russia’s highly politicized legal system on charges the West believes were trumped up.
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