Some of those freed in US-Russia prisoner swap: (L-R, top to bottom) US journalist Evan Gershkovich; Paul Whelan, a former US Marine; Alsu Kurmasheva, a US-Russian journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; and Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza. Photo: AFP
By Andrew Osborn, Filipp Lebedev and Lucy Papachristou
Jailed US Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan were among two dozen detainees from the United States, Russia and a number of their allies freed on Thursday in the biggest prisoner exchange since the Cold War.
The White House said the US had negotiated the complex trade with Russia and other countries. It said eight prisoners held in the West were being sent back to Russia.
Germany confirmed that they included Vadim Krasikov, convicted of murdering an exiled dissident in Berlin.
Turkey, which coordinated the exchange, said 10 prisoners, including two minors, had been moved to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the United States. Also involved in the swap were Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus.
"After the completion of the ratification procedures of the parties, the health checks ... the prisoners were placed on the planes of the countries to which they would be travelling with the approval and instructions of the MIT," the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) said in a statement.
It said it had authorised the return of the aircraft.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not specifically confirm a swap but was quoted by the state news agency TASS as saying that, in principle, "all our enemies should stay there (abroad), and all those who are not our enemies should return".
In the last major exchange in 2010, 14 prisoners were exchanged.
In December 2022, Russia traded US basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years for having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, for arms dealer Viktor Bout, serving a 25-year sentence in the US.
Krasikov is a colonel in the Russian FSB security service who was serving a life sentence in Germany for murdering an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in a Berlin park. President Vladimir Putin had indicated he wanted him back.
Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death in Belarus on terrorism charges, was pardoned on Tuesday by President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally. He was also among those released, along with Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, Turkey said.
Russian dissidents had disappeared from view
Reuters footage showed a Russian government plane on the ground in the Turkish capital Ankara.
Whelan and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident, both jailed in Russia, had suddenly disappeared from view in recent days, according to their lawyers. At least seven Russian dissidents had been unexpectedly moved from their prisons.
A lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian held in the United States, declined on Wednesday to confirm the whereabouts of his client to the state RIA news agency "until the exchange takes place".
RIA had also reported that four Russians jailed in the United States had disappeared from a database of prisoners operated by the US Federal Bureau of Prisons. It named them as Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenok and Vladislav Klyushin.
Dissidents inside Russia whose supporters say they have been told that they have been suddenly moved in recent days include human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Daniil Krinari, convicted of secretly cooperating with foreign governments.
In the West, the dissidents are seen by governments and activists as wrongfully detained political prisoners. All have, for different reasons, been designated by Moscow as dangerous extremists.
US President Joe Biden, joined by relatives of prisoners freed by Russia. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP
A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians to time served for espionage and using fake identities, and said they would be deported, the state news agency STA reported, a move a Slovenian TV channel said was part of the wider exchange.
WSJ Editor in Chief Emma Tucker posted an open letter on the X platform that read: "Today is a joyous day for the safe return of our colleague Evan Gershkovich, who left a Russian aircraft moments ago in Turkey's capital, Ankara, as part of a prisoner swap with Russia.
"We are grateful to President Biden and his administration for working with persistence and determination to bring Evan home rather than see him shipped off to a Russian work camp for a crime he didn't commit."
US President Joe Biden said the exchange was "a feat of diplomacy and friendship" and praised Washington's allies for their "bold and brave decisions".
"This would not have been possible without our allies," he said, adding: "Today is a powerful example of why it's vital to have friends in this world."
US Vice President Kamala Harris will return to Washington from Houston to welcome Americans freed in a prisoner swap with Russia, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Thursday.
The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had pardoned by decree 12 prisoners, including three Americans, released in a swap with Western countries on Thursday, in what it said was a move aimed at returning Russian captives held abroad.
In the statement, the Kremlin said it was grateful to all countries that helped prepare the swap, and to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for releasing German national Rico Krieger.
Germany said the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted of the murder in 2019 of a former Chechen militant in Berlin, was "not an easy decision".
"Our obligation to protect German nationals and our solidarity with the USA were important motivations," the government said in a statement.
- Reuters