Russia frees American journalist Evan Gershkovich in prisoner swap after 16 months behind bars
Imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan were freed from prison in Russia Thursday as part of the largest multi-country prisoner swap since the Cold War.
Gershkovich, Whelan, and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva were pictured grinning while holding an American flag shortly after they were transferred to US custody in Ankara, Turkey.
US permanent resident and opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was also released, was not pictured.
Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich disembarked a Russian aircraft at the airport in Ankara, Turkey, just before 11:30 a.m. ET, his paper confirmed.
“We are grateful to share the sublime news that our colleague Evan Gershkovich has finally been released after almost 500 days in a Russian prison,” wrote Robert Thomson, the CEO of Wall Street Journal owner NewsCorp, in a message to colleagues.
Gershkovich and Whelan were among 24 prisoners from the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Russia, and Belarus that will be freed as part of the prisoner exchange overseen by Turkish intelligence, Turkey’s presidency said.
Ten prisoners, including two minors, were transferred to Russia, while 13 were moved to Germany and three to the United States as part of the deal, Turkish officials said.
President Biden?gathered the families of Gershkovich, Whelan, Kurmasheva and Kara-Murza?at the White House Thursday to share the news that their loved ones were en route to freedom, National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said, according to CNN.
Here’s the latest on former Russian prisoner Evan Gershkovich
- New video shows savage arrest of freed WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich by Russian officers
- Who is Evan Gershkovich, WSJ reporter freed in Russian prisoner swap?
- First photo shows smiling Evan Gershkovich with Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva since they were freed in prisoner swap
- President Biden delivers first remarks since Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and other US captives freed: ‘Their brutal ordeal is over’
- Russia frees American journalist Evan Gershkovich in prisoner swap after 16 months behind bars
President Biden gathered the families of Gershkovich, Whelan, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and dissident Vladimor Kara-Murza at the White House Thursday to share the news that their loved ones were en route to freedom, National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said, according to CNN.
“Not since the Cold War has there been a similar number of individuals exchanged in this way and there has never, so far as we know, been an exchange involving so many countries, so many close US partners and allies working together,” Sullivan said of the historic deal.
The historic deal was several months in the making, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The US and Germany initially hoped to free Kremlin critic Alexei Nalvalny in a broad agreement that first started coming together after Biden invited German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House, the outlet explained.
The allies regrouped in the wake of Navalny’s death in February. The terms of the deal were so top-secret that insiders resorted to paper-only draft proposals that were hand-delivered from Sullivan’s office to his German counterpart, the Journal said.
Biden, 81, took a call with the prime minister of Slovenia – whose country was supplying two Russian spies to the swap – just about an hour before he announced he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race on July 21.
CIA Director Williams Burns traveled to Turkey last week to finalize the logistics, the Journal added.
The Kremlin broke its silence on the deal late Thursday to say it hoped the freed prisoners – described as “enemies” – would steer clear, the state-run TASS news agency reported.
“I believe that all our enemies should stay there (abroad), and all those who are not our enemies should return. That’s my point of view,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Ten prisoners, including two minors, were transferred to Russia, while 13 were moved to Germany and three to the United States as part of the deal, Turkish officials said.
The White House and the Kremlin declined to comment on when the swap would take place, though a Russian government plane was spotted on the runway in Ankara around 5 p.m. local time.
Gershkovich, 32, was arrested and accused of spying on March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip for the Wall Street Journal in Yekaterinburg.
He was convicted of espionage earlier this month and sentenced to 16 years behind bars following a closed-doors trial that was widely condemned by international leadership.
Paul Whelan, 54, was visiting Russia for a friend’s wedding when he was arrested for espionage in 2018. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Speculation about a massive US-Russia prisoner swap picked up in the beginning of the week, when several prominent prisoners – including Whelan and Kara-Murza – were moved from their cells to unknown locations.
Four Russians imprisoned in the US – Alexander Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshechenko, and Vladislav Klushin – also disappeared from the database operated by the US Federal Bureau of Prisons, the RIA state news agency claimed.
Three Russians serving federal prison sentences were transferred to US Marshals in preparation for the eventual trade, law enforcement sources confirmed to CNN Thursday.
A lawyer for Vinnik, a cybercrime kingpin who has been held in the US since 2022, declined to provide information about their client’s location “until the exchange takes place” – though he did not appear on the preliminary list of released prisoners circulated by CNN.
Vadim Krasikov, identified by German officials as a high-ranking member of the FSB intelligence agency, was also released back to Russia on Thursday.
Krasikov was serving a life sentence for the 2019 murder of a Kremlin dissident in Berlin. He was previously favored for a rumored exchange for Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in Western Siberia in February.
“The Federal Government did not take this decision lightly,” German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said of the decision to exchange the convicted killer.
The last major exchange with Russia happened in December 2022, when American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner was released in return for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Griner had spent just under a year in Russian prison for having trace amounts of cannabis oil in her bags as she traveled through the country.
Bout — known as the “Merchant of Death” — had served 10 years behind bars after being convicted of conspiring to kill Americans and aiding a terrorist entity.
