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Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan are free: Russia releases Americans in prisoner swap

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Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan are free: Russia releases Americans in prisoner swap

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WASHINGTON − Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were released from Russian custody Thursday as part of a six-nation deal that was the biggest prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow since the Cold War.

President Joe Biden, speaking from the White House, thanked U.S. allies Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey for helping in what he described as a “feat of diplomacy.”

“They stood with us,” Biden said. “They made bold and brave decisions, released prisoners being held in their countries who were justifiably being held and provided the logistical support to get the Americans home.”

The exchange of 24 prisoners follows months of negotiations and marks a rare moment of cooperation between Russia and its geopolitical adversaries in the West after more than two years of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The prisoner swap involves the release of 16 individuals previously detained in Russia in exchange for eight people held in the U.S., Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Poland. Turkish intelligence had announced it agreed to provide logistical support to facilitate the swap.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was arrested in Russia in 2020, and another journalist, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident, were also released from Russian prisons in the exchange.

Among those returned to Russia was hitman Vadim Krasikov, who had been jailed in Germany since 2021. The release of Krasikov was the biggest concession to bring Gershkovich, Whelan and others home. The Russian Security Service issued a statement saying eight Russian citizens “who had been detained and imprisoned in a number of NATO countries, as well as minor children, were returned to their homeland.”

Standing with the families of the released Americans at the White House on Thursday, Biden called their convictions “show trials” and said they were held for “absolutely no legitimate reason.” Whelan, Gershkovich and Kurmasheva were “falsely accused of being spies,” Biden said.

Kara-Murza, who Biden said was a pallbearer at John McCain’s funeral alongside him, was convicted of treason, Biden said, for speaking out against Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s regime. “And now, their brutal ordeal is over. And they’re free,” the president said.

Biden said he and the families had just spoken to the freed prisoners by telephone in the Oval Office. They were flown to Turkey from Russia earlier Thursday, he confirmed, and they will soon be on their way back to the United States.

“This is an incredible relief for all the family members gathered here,” he said.

‘Their brutal ordeal is over’: Biden addresses largest prisoner swap since Cold War

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will greet Gershkovich, Whelan and others when they land at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, D.C., on Thursday night, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.

Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, played an important role in the prisoner swap, Sullivan said, pointing to discussions she had with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during this year’s Munich Security Conference about the release of prisoners in February.

Harris was “very much a core member of the team that helped make this happen,” Sullivan said.

− Joey Garrison 

Biden said some political dissidents in Russia were being released and can now live safely abroad, and that should make Americans proud. He also took a dig at his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, saying that one of his first acts as president-elect was to dig into the cases of wrongfully detained Americans he was inheriting from the prior administration.

Asked later about Trump’s claim that he could have gotten the prisoners released without providing anything in return, Biden said: “Why didn’t he do it when he was president?”

In all, Biden said, more than 70 Americans who were wrongfully detained or held hostage have been released during his administration. Biden, who is leaving office in January, said he would continue to work to bring wrongfully detained Americans home.

The families, he said, never gave up hope. Turning to Whelan’s sister, he said the public “can’t imagine” what the families have been through.

In addition, five wrongfully detained German citizens and seven other Russian citizens − each political prisoners in their own country − will be released and allowed to leave Russia.

Sullivan said opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison in February, was supposed to be among them.

“We had been working with our partners on a deal that would have included Alexei Navalny, and unfortunately he died,” Sullivan said at a White House press briefing.

Leonid Volkov, the former chairman of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote on social media that the organization “rejoiced at the release of political prisoners, Putin’s hostages, who suffered in Putin’s GULAG,” but it is “joy with tears in our eyes.”

Volkov alleged the exchange was originally set to take place in February but was delayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who then ordered the killing of Navalny, one of his most outspoken critics and a popular figure in the West. USA TODAY could not independently verify Volkov’s claims.

Gershkovich, who speaks fluent Russian, was based in the Wall Street Journal’s Moscow bureau. The Journal says he had accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist in the country.

Gershkovich, 32, was detained in early 2023, during a time of heightened tensions between the West and Russia over the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin was cracking down on opposition activists, independent journalists and civil society groups. Russian prosecutors accused the New Jersey native of gathering information on behalf of the CIA. Gershkovich, the Journal and the U.S. government denied the charges, saying he was doing his job as a journalist. On July 19, Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges. The WSJ and the U.S. condemned the proceedings as a sham trial.

Sullivan, during a press briefing, teared up as he discussed the return of Gershkovich, Whelan and others. He called the historic prisoner swap “a feat of diplomacy that, honestly, could only be achieved by a leader like Joe Biden.”

“This was vintage Joe Biden: rallying American allies to save American citizens,” Sullivan said.

− Kinsey Crowley and Wyatte Grantham-Philips

Paul Nicholas Whelan was born in March 1970 in Ottawa, Ontario, and grew up with his sister and two brothers in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He testified in a 2013 court deposition that he worked as a police officer in Chelsea, Michigan, for over a decade before he joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.

He received a bad-conduct discharge from the Marines after he was convicted in a special court-martial of attempting to steal more than $10,000 while at Al Asad Airbase in Iraq. Other related convictions included dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using other people’s Social Security numbers and bouncing checks.

He was arrested in Russia on Dec. 28, 2018, on espionage charges. At the time of his arrest, Whelan was working as the head of global security for the consulting firm BorgWarner. The Russian Foreign Ministry alleged Whelan was caught “red-handed” in an act of espionage, while Whelan insisted that he was set up and that he was simply a tourist. He was sentenced to 16 years of hard labor at the end of a closed-door trial.

− Kristen Jordan Shamus

Another American still remains in Russian custody. Marc Fogel is a history teacher from Pennsylvania who taught for nearly a decade at a Russian school. Fogel was arrested at a Moscow airport in August 2021 for possession of medical marijuana prescribed to treat spinal pain. In 2022, he was sentenced to a 14-year prison sentence at a Russian penal colony.

Fogel, in his early 60s, grew up in Butler, Pennsylvania. He attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania and went on to teach history courses at schools attended by children of U.S. diplomats around the world, including places such as Colombia, Malaysia, Oman, Venezuela and Russia.

The U.S. State Department has not declared Fogel wrongfully detained, which has frustrated his family and lawmakers petitioning to get Fogel out of Russian custody.

− Christopher Cann

Biden said Friday will be the 13th birthday for Kurmasheva’s daughter Miriam. He reached out his hand and invited her to the lectern, then led those in attendance in singing her happy birthday.

“Remember, no serious guys until you’re 30,” he said, causing Miriam to laugh before she walked back to her family and embraced them.

“Now she gets to celebrate with her mom,” Biden said. “That’s what this is all about − families, able to be together again, like they should have been all along.”

Finally a swap: Russia prisoner swap brings Whelan, Gershkovich home. US should have done more, sooner.

Receive USA TODAY’s Russia-Ukraine newsletter to get the context on the war beyond the headlines. 

Families of Gershkovich, Whelan and others gathered at the White House on Thursday to learn about the long-awaited release of their loved ones.

Signs of an imminent exchange began emerging Sunday after lawyers and representatives for prisoners reported some of their clients missing from detention centers and prisons throughout Russia.

“Today, we celebrate the return of Paul, Evan, Alsu and Vladimir and rejoice with their families,” Biden said in an earlier the statement. “We remember all those still wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world. And reaffirm our pledge to their families: We see you. We are with you. And we will never stop working to bring your loved ones home where they belong.”

‘Painstaking, extraordinary’: Prisoner swap negotiations with Russia over Brittney Griner

The U.S. State Department says Russia weaponizes political prisoners, wrongfully detaining them for various reasons. Russia disputes this and either designated them as dangerous extremists or claims they are spies.

The previous largest prisoner swap with Russia took place in 2010, involving 14 people.

“Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years,” Biden said. “All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.”

Russia in 2022 traded basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years for having cannabis oil vape cartridges in her luggage, for arms dealer Viktor Bout. Bout was serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S.

Contributing: Reuters

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