Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan released in Russian-US prisoner swap, Türkiye reports

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Russia completed the largest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, and Moscow released a journalist Evan Gershkovich and my American friend Paul Whelanalong with dissidents, including Vladimir Kara-Murzaas part of an international agreement that released twenty-four people, the White House said.

The surprising scale of the deal followed years of secret negotiations held behind closed doors, even as relations between Washington and Moscow were at their lowest point since the Cold War following the departure of Russian President Vladimir Putin. February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The deal was the latest in a series of prisoner swaps negotiated between Russia and the U.S. over the past two years, but the first to require significant concessions from other countries, with seven nations agreeing to hand over 24 prisoners. President Joe Biden hailed it as a “diplomatic feat,” calling the news “an incredible relief” and saying “the brutal suffering of detainees has ended.”

“Today is a powerful example of why it is so important to have friends in this world,” he said in a speech at the White House, joined by the families of four people — three Americans and one green card holder — who were released.

But the good news has certainly raised concerns about the deal’s imbalance — Russia is freeing journalists, dissidents and others convicted by a highly politicized judicial system in exchange for those the West believes are rightly accused — and whether it gives foreign actors seeking influence over the U.S. an incentive to take prisoners.

Under the agreement, Russia released Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who was jailed in 2023. convicted in July of espionage that he and the United States vehemently deny and consider unfounded; Whelan, a corporate security executive in Michigan who was imprisoned in 2018, also on espionage charges that he and Washington deny; and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu KurmashevaShe holds dual U.S.-Russian citizenship and was convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military. Her family and employer have denied the allegations.

Emma Tucker, the Journal’s senior editor, called it “a day of great joy” and said, “I can’t even begin to describe the happiness and relief this news brings. I know you all will feel the same way.”

Biden put the release of Americans wrongfully detained abroad at the top of his foreign policy agenda six months before leaving office. In his Oval Office address to the American people, in which he discussed his recent decision to withdraw from seeking a second term, the Democrat said, “We are also working around the clock to bring home Americans wrongfully detained around the world.”

Among the released dissidents were Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer serving a 25-year sentence for high treason, widely believed to be politically motivated, 11 political prisoners held in Russia, including associates of the deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalnyand a German citizen arrested in Belarus.

The Russian side received Vadim Krasikovwho was convicted in Germany in 2021 of killing a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park two years earlier, apparently on the orders of Moscow’s security services.

Russia also took in two alleged sleeper agents who were imprisoned in Slovenia, as well as three men charged by federal authorities in the U.S., including Roman Seleznev, convicted computer hacker and son of Russian lawmakerand Vadim Konoshchenok, a suspected Russian intelligence agent accused of supplying American electronics and ammunition to the Russian military. Norway returned a scientist was arrested on suspicion of being a Russian spyand Poland also sent back the detained man.

Thursday’s exchange of 24 prisoners exceeded contract with 14 people which was concluded in 2010. As part of this exchange, Washington released 10 Russians living in the US as sleepers, while Moscow deported four Russians, including Sergei Skripala double agent working for British intelligence. He and his daughter were nearly killed in Britain in 2018 by a nerve agent poisoning blamed on Russian agents.

Speculation had been growing for weeks that a swap was imminent due to a confluence of unusual events, including Gershkovich’s surprisingly quick trial and convictionwhich Washington considered a fraud. He was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison.

In a trial that ended in two days in secret the same week as the Gershkovich trial, Kurmasheva was convicted on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military, which her family, employer and U.S. officials rejected.

Also in recent days, several other characters were imprisoned in Russia for speaking out against the war in Ukraine or for cooperating with Navalny, they were transferred from prison to an unknown location.

Gershkovich was arrested on March 29, 2023, during a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Authorities said, without providing any evidence, that he was gathering classified information for the U.S. The son of Soviet emigres who settled in New Jersey, he moved to Russia in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times before being hired by the Journal in 2022.

He had more than a dozen closed hearings on extensions of pretrial detention or appeals of release. He was taken to court in handcuffs and appeared in the defendants’ cage, often smiling for the many cameras.

U.S. officials made an offer last year to swap Gershkovich that was rejected by Russia, and the Democratic Biden administration has not disclosed any possible agreements since then.

Gershkovich was found to have been falsely detained, as was Whelan, who was detained in December 2018 after traveling to Russia for a wedding. Whelan was convicted of espionage charges that he and the U.S. also said were false and fabricated, and served a 16-year prison sentence.

Whelan has been excluded from previous high-profile deals involving Russia, including the April 2022 agreement. Moscow’s exchange of imprisoned Marine veteran Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of drug conspiracy. In December of this year, the US freed the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for the recovery of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned for drug-related offenses.

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Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia.