Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich are among the Americans freed by a prisoner swap with Russia.

 

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan are among more than a dozen prisoners released by Russia in exchange for Russian prisoners held by the United States and other countries throughout Europe, according to U.S. officials on Thursday. This is one of the largest prisoner swaps between the United States, its allies, and Russia since the end of the Cold War.

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Under the terms of the agreement, eight Russians who are detained in the United States, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, and Poland will be exchanged for sixteen political prisoners, journalists, and other detainees, including five Germans. Vadim Krasikov, a Russian state assassin on trial who is being held in Germany, and three other Russians who are being held in the United States are among the Russians.

President Biden praised countries that collaborated with the US on the swap agreement, calling it "a feat of diplomacy." He released a statement saying, "This is a powerful example of why it's vital to have friends in this world whom you can trust and depend on."

According to U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, "not since the Cold War has there been a similar number of individuals exchanged in this way." The exchange was the "culmination of many rounds of complex painstaking negotiations over many, many months." Later on Thursday, Sullivan stated that President Biden will want to build on the achievements in attempting to free additional Americans detained in Syria, Afghanistan, and other locations, as well as U.S. citizen Marc Fogel, who is currently detained in Russia.

Gershkovich, Whelan, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who works for US-funded Radio Free Europe, and Russian journalist and dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, a permanent citizen of the US, are among those making their way back to the US from Russia.

The Turkish government was thanked by Secretary of State Antony Blinken for "providing a location for the safe return of these individuals to the United States and Germany."

In a statement, the Turkish government claimed to have been instrumental in organizing and carrying out "the most extensive prisoner exchange operation of recent times in Ankara," involving not only Whelan and Gershkovich but also Russian dissident Ilya Yashin, German mercenary Rico Krieger, who was identified as a colonel in the FSB, Russia's internal security service, and Russian dissident Vadim Krasikov.

The Turkish intelligence agency, MIT, was credited with carrying out the operation in the announcement.

Gershkovich was the first American journalist to face espionage charges since the end of the Cold War when he was detained in Moscow in March 2023. He was given a 16-year prison sentence by a Russian court last month after the prosecutor there charged him with collaborating with the CIA to gather intelligence on a Russian arms manufacturer. The claims were vehemently refuted by Gershkovich, his employer, and the US government, which believed that Gershkovich had been unfairly arrested.

Editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal Emma Tucker released a statement saying, "We can finally say, together, 'Welcome home, Evan.'"

Whelan, a veteran of the Marine Corps and citizen of the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada, was detained in Russia in December 2018 on suspicion of espionage, an allegation he vehemently rejected. Whelan was given a 16-year prison sentence by a Moscow court on June 15, 2020.

His family released the following statement on Thursday: "Paul was kept as a captive for 2,043 days. His case was one of an American in danger, detained by the Russian Federation as part of their despicable plan to utilize people as bargaining chips in order to obtain concessions. Paul lost his house while he was wrongly imprisoned in Russia. He was laid off. How someone recovers from these setbacks and reintegrates into society after being a hostage is unknown to us. We appreciate all of your efforts in supporting Paul throughout his absence. We sincerely hope you will keep supporting Paul in his efforts to restore his life by giving him the room and alone he requires. When he is able, Paul will share his tale because it is his to tell."

Whelan and Kara-Murza are both British nationals, and their release was applauded by Foreign Secretary David Lammy of the United Kingdom. In a statement, Lammy added, "Mr. Kara-Murza is a dedicated opponent of Putin's regime." "He should never have been in prison in the first place: the Russian authorities imprisoned him in life-threatening conditions because he courageously told the truth about the war in Ukraine."

Alsu Kurmasheva's employer, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, president and CEO Stephen Capus, issued the following statement: "Alsu was targeted because she was an American journalist who was simply trying to take care of a family member inside Russia." She didn't do anything wrong, and she most definitely didn't deserve the unfair treatment and forced separation from her devoted coworkers and family. Our resolve to free the three other RFE/RL journalists who are brutally detained in Belarus and Russian-occupied Crimea is strengthened by Alsu's release. Until all of our wrongfully imprisoned journalists are safely back at home, we won't stop. Reporting is not illegal.

According to Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser, the president met with the released inmates while they were waiting to board their return flight on the tarmac in Ankara. He announced that Vice President Kamala Harris and Vice President Joe Biden would be at Joint Base Andrews on Thursday night when a plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovich, and Kurmasheva is scheduled to land.

We will be updating this story as it breaks.