Americans freed in Russia prisoner swap reunite with families
Three Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, have returned to US soil after a prisoner swap with Russia.
Gershkovich, 32, was among 16 prisoners exchanged for eight Russian prisoners in what has been called the largest swap between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
The exchange, which took place at an airfield in Turkey, also saw the release of former US Marine Paul Whelan and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
Upon landing at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Gershkovich, Kurmasheva, and Whelan were greeted with cheers from those on the tarmac. They were welcomed by US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris before each embraced their families.
They lingered on the tarmac for photographs and conversations before leaving the air base within an hour, as did Mr Biden and Ms Harris’s motorcades.
Speaking ahead of their return, Mr 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 Mr Whelan, Mr Gershkovich, Ms Kurmasheva as well as leading Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza as a “feat of diplomacy”.
The three released Americans will be transported to the Brooke Army Medical Centre in Texas for a medical check-up.
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.
A total of 24 individuals from prisons in seven different countries were exchanged in Ankara, according to Turkey’s presidency.
The statement detailed that the exchanged prisoners were from the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia, and Belarus. Ten people, including two minors, were relocated to Russia, 13 prisoners to Germany, and three to the US.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin personally welcomed the released Russians with bouquets of flowers at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. He warmly embraced them on a red carpet and announced they would receive state awards.
Among those returned to Moscow was a Russian couple convicted of spying in Slovenia, who were accompanied by their two children.
Both NATO and the European Union welcomed the release, noting it was mediated by Turkey.
German citizen Rico Krieger, who had been sentenced to death in Belarus and pardoned by the country’s leader Alexander Lukashenko earlier this week, was also released.
Previous discussions about a prisoner swap had included jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but the offer fell through when he died under unclear circumstances in an Arctic penal colony in February. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, welcomed the swap, calling it a “joy.”
The exchange follows days of speculation about a major swap between various countries, heightened by the transfer of several dissidents and journalists jailed in Russia from their prison cells to unknown locations. Although secret prison transfers are common in Russia, the multiple disappearances of well-known prisoners were unusual.
The last high-profile prisoner swap occurred in December 2022, when US basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged at Abu Dhabi airport for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who had been held in an American prison for 12 years.
A comparable swap took place in Vienna in 2010, when 10 Russian spies held in the US were exchanged for four alleged double agents held in Russia. One of them was Sergei Skripal, a former military intelligence officer later poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in 2018.
Tensions between Moscow and the West have been high in recent years, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.