The Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were released on Thursday. Russia As part of a larger multinational prisoner exchange involving 24 prisoners.
Russian-American journalist Arus Kurmasheva and British-Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza were also released as part of the exchange.
“All four men are wrongfully imprisoned in Russia,” President Joe Biden said in a televised address surrounded by their families at the White House.
Released with them were five German nationals and seven Russian nationals, all of whom were flown to Turkey as part of a negotiated exchange and had been serving time in Russian prisons on charges whose validity their home countries strongly dispute.
Eight Russians, including convicted spy and hitman Vadim Krasikov, are being extradited to Russia from the United States, Slovenia, Norway, Poland and Germany.
Paul Whelan (left) and Evan Gershkovich
Reuters
Biden administration officials said the release of Krasikov, who was being held in Germany for the killing of a former Chechen fighter in Berlin in 2019, was key to getting Russia to agree to the swap.
Messrs. Gershkovich, Whelan and Kurmasheva are U.S. citizens, and Kara Murza is a U.S. permanent resident.
“The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy,” Biden said in a statement. White HouseThere, Biden was scheduled to meet with families of Americans who had been released.
“We have negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian nationals who were political prisoners in their own countries,” Biden said.
“Some of these women and men have been unjustly detained for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their suffering has come to an end.”
Ars Kumurasheva (left) and Vladimir Kara-Murza
Getty Images
“This exchange today will be historic,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a call with reporters.
“Never since the Cold War have so many individuals been exchanged in this manner, and to our knowledge never before has an exchange been conducted in this way involving so many countries, so many of America’s close partners and allies,” Sullivan said.
“This is the culmination of many months of complex and painstaking negotiations.”
On August 1, 2024, US President Joe Biden gave a short speech at the White House in Washington, USA, in which he spoke about the release of Americans being held in Russia.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia in March 2023 on suspicion of espionage, died in mid-July. 16 years in prison This comes after the US government condemned it as a sham trial.
The journalist was convicted of collecting secret information, at the direction of US intelligence, about the activities of defense companies that manufacture and repair military equipment.
Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence for espionage in Russia that he was sentenced to in 2020, two years after his arrest in Moscow.
Those being sent to Germany from Russian custody are: Dieter Voronin, Kevin Rick, Rico Krieger, Patrick Schabel, Hermann Moyz, Ilya Yashin, Liliya Chanisheva, Ksenia Fadeeva, Vadim Ostanin, Andrei Pivovarov, Oleg Orlov and Sasha Skochlenko.
Joining Krasikov in Russia are Slovenia’s Artem Viktorovich Durtsev and Anna Valerevna Durtseva, Norway’s Mikhail Valerievich Mikusin, Poland’s Pavel Alexeyevich Rubtsov, and the United States’ Roman Seleznev, Vladislav Klyushin and Vadim Konoshenok.
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