Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were released on Thursday by Russia as part of a big multinational prisoner exchange of two dozen prisoners.
As a part of the exchange, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and British-Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza were also released.
“All four were wrongfully detained in Russia,” President Joe Biden said in a televised address from the White House, where he was accompanied by their families.
Five German and 7 Russian residents were released with them. All of those people, who were flown to Turkey as a part of the negotiated exchange, were in prison in Russia on charges whose validity their home countries had strongly contested.
Eight Russians, including spy and convicted contract killer Vadim Krasikov, are being sent back to Russia from the United States, Slovenia, Norway, Poland and Germany.
The release of Krasikov, who was held in Germany for the 2019 killing of a former Chechen militant in Berlin, was key to Russia agreeing to the exchange, in response to a Biden administration official.
Gershkovich, Whelan and Kurmasheva are US residents, while Kara-Murza has everlasting American citizenship.
“The deal that secured their freedom was a diplomatic masterpiece,” Biden said in a press release. White Housewhere the President wanted to satisfy members of the family of the released Americans.
“In total, we negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia – including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country,” Biden said.
“Some of these women and men have been wrongfully detained for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today their ordeal is over.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a phone call with reporters: “Today's exchange will be historic.”
“There has not been an exchange of personnel like this since the Cold War, and to our knowledge there has never been an exchange involving so many countries and involving so many close U.S. partners and allies,” Sullivan said.
“It is the culmination of many rounds of complex, arduous negotiations over many, many months.”
A small plane carrying Gershkovich, Whelan and Kurmasheva landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland late Thursday evening. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris greeted the released Americans together with their families on the tarmac.
Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia in March 2023 on espionage charges, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a trial that the US government has described as a farce.
The journalist was convicted of collecting secret information on behalf of the US secret services in regards to the activities of an arms company that manufactures and repairs military equipment.
Whelan is serving his own 16-year prison sentence for alleged espionage in Russia after being convicted in 2020, two years after his arrest in Moscow.
The people being sent from Russian custody to Germany are: 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.
In addition to Krasikov, the next people shall be sent to Russia: 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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