Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan were released Thursday by Russia as part of a major multi-nation exchange of two dozen prisoners.
Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and British-Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza were also released as part of the swap.
“All four have been unjustly imprisoned in Russia,” President Joe Biden said in a televised address from the White House, where he was flanked by family members.
They were released with five German citizens and seven Russian citizens. All of them, who were flown to Turkey as part of the negotiated exchange, have been jailed in Russia on charges that their home countries have disputed their legitimacy.
Eight Russians, including spy and assassin Vadim Krasikov, returned to Russia from the United States, Slovenia, Norway, Poland and Germany.
Paul Whelan (L) & Evan Gershkovich
Reuters
Freeing Krasikov, who is being held in Germany for killing a former Chechen militant in Berlin in 2019, is key to getting Russia to agree to the swap, according to Biden administration officials.
Gershkovich, Whelan and Kurmasheva are US citizens, while Kara-Murza is an American permanent resident.
“The deal that secured his freedom was a diplomatic achievement,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House, where Biden plans to meet with family members of the freed Americans.
“All told, we have negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia — including five Germans and seven Russians who are political prisoners in their own countries,” Biden said.
“Some of these women and men have been unjustly detained for years. All of them have endured suffering and uncertainty. Today, their suffering has ended.”
Alsu Kumrasheva (L) and Vladimir Kara-Murza
Getty Images
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on a call with reporters, “Today’s exchange will be historic,” he said.
“Not since the Cold War have we had the same number of people exchanged in this way and never, as far as we know, has it been an exchange involving so many countries, so many US partners and allies working together,” Sullivan said. .
“This is the culmination of many complex and complicated rounds of negotiations over many months.”
US President Joe Biden speaks about the release of Americans detained in Russia during a brief speech from the White House in Washington, US, August 1, 2024.
Nathan Howard Reuters
Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia in March 2023 on espionage charges, was sentenced in mid-July to 16 years in prison after being convicted by the United States government of being a fraud.
The journalist was convicted of collecting secret information about the activities of defense companies for the production and repair of military equipment on the instructions of the US intelligence service.
Whelan is already serving a 16-year sentence for alleged espionage in Russia after being sentenced in 2020, two years after being detained in Moscow.
The people sent to Germany from Russian prisoners are: Dieter Voronin, Kevin Lick, Rico Krieger, Patrick Schoebel, Herman Moyzhes, Ilya Yashin, Liliya Chanysheva, Kseniya Fadeyeva, Vadim Ostanin, Andrey Pivovarov, Oleg Orlov, Sasha Skochilenko.
Those sent to Russia, besides 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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