Three Americans freed from Russia arrived late Thursday night at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed them.
The Americans were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US marine Paul Whelan, and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. They were among 16 prisoners swapped for eight Russian prisoners in what has been described as the biggest exchange since the end of the Cold War between Russia and the West.
The swap of prisoners took place in an airfield in Turkey. Whelan, 54, had spent almost six years in Russian prisons after his arrest in Moscow in December 2018, while Gershkovich, 32, had been detained for more than a year. Both were sentenced on espionage charges and declared wrongfully detained by the US State Department.
“Brutal ordeal is over” for Americans freed by Russia
Kurmasheva, a 47-year-old journalist for the US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was detained in October 2023 and found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian army – charges her family and employer deny.
Speaking ahead of their return, Biden welcomed their release and declared: “Their brutal ordeal is over.” He praised the role played by America’s allies, particularly Germany and Slovenia, and hailed the release of Whelan, Gershkovich, Kurmasheva as well as leading Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza as a “feat of diplomacy”.
The deal had been more than 18 months in the making and appears to have hinged on Moscow’s demand for the return of Vadim Krasikov – who was serving a life sentence in Germany for carrying out an assassination in a Berlin park. He is now back in Russia.
In total, 26 people from prisons in seven different countries were exchanged in Ankara, Turkey’s presidency said. The prisoners were from the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia, and Belarus, it said in a statement.
Ten people, including two minors, were relocated to Russia, 13 prisoners to Germany, and three to the US, the statement added.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin personally greeted the released Russians with bouquets of flowers at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. Embracing them warmly on a red carpet, Putin said they would be given state awards.
Among those who returned to Moscow was Krasikov and a Russian couple, convicted of spying in Slovenia, who returned to Russia with their two children.
The BBC reports that earlier prisoner swap discussions had included jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The offer collapsed when he died in unclear circumstances in an Arctic penal colony in February.
As the New York Times reports, their release was secured in a deal whose size and complexity have little precedent in the post-Soviet era.
It adds that the deal involving seven countries — which came together after an elaborate web of negotiations behind the scenes — was a diplomatic victory for Biden, who has long pledged to bring home imprisoned Americans and to support Russia’s embattled pro-democracy movement.
