A historic prisoner swap between Russia and the US has begun on a Turkish runway, with Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. marine Paul Whelan set to be dramatically released.
The men were let go alongside several other Western citizens, including Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmashevas, as part of a major inmate swap with Moscow, involving 26 prisoners.
The exchange took place in the Turkish capital of Ankara. The country has previously mediated prisoner exchanges between Russia and the West.
Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 on espionage charges that the United States says are illegitimate. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in July.
Whelan, 54, has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018 and was sentenced to 16 years in jail in 2020 on spying charges. The US has denied he was ever involved in espionage operations.
A plane carrying American prisoners has landed in Turkey following a major swap between Russia and the US
The exchange took place in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Thursday. The country has previously acted as a mediator for prisoner exchanges between Russia and the West
A Russian Tupolev Tu-204-300 aircraft prepares to land at Ankara Esenboga Airport in Ankara amid the exchange
Radio journalist Kurmasheva was arrested in October last year and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident journalist also jailed in Russia, was also reported to have disappeared from view, prompting speculation he is among those released.
Kara-Murza, 42, was arrested in April 2022 just hours after a CNN interview was broadcast in which he stated Russia was run by a ‘regime of murderers‘.
He was sentenced to 25 years in a Siberian jail in a tiny punishment cell just ten feet long and five feet wide.
Four Russians detained in the US on charges including murder, cyber crime, smuggling and money laundering were thought to possibly be part of the exchange.
The Moscow Times reported the individuals recently disappeared from the federal inmates’ database in America.
Details of exactly who has been released have not been made public yet.
Turkey’s presidency said 10 prisoners, including two minors, had been moved to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the United States.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is among those released from prison in Russia
Former US marine Paul Whelan has also been released as part of the major prisoner swap
Radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was arrested in October last year and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, has also been released
A Russian government plane is seen on the tarmac after landing at Esenboga Airport in Ankara, Turkey
The Kremlin has previously pushed for the release of convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov in previous prisoner swaps, raising speculation that he could be among those freed.
It comes after Slovenian broadcaster, N1 Slovenia, reported on a possible deal being struck earlier this week.
The reports cited an exchange including the US, Germany, Russia and Belarus.
If the claims of up to 30 prisoners being exchanged are true, it would be the largest prisoner swap between the United States and Russia since the end of the Cold War.
According to the anonymous source cited by the Moscow Times, Russian authorities have made ‘great efforts to keep the information inside Russia as much a secret as possible until the last moment.’
The developments came as recently as Wednesday, when Kremlin military aircraft reportedly flew to isolated regions in Russia where political prisoners are being held.
Gershkovich, seen during happier times, was detained in March 2023 on espionage charges that the United States says are illegitimate. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in July
Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, was arrested in 2018 in Moscow, where he was attending a friend’s wedding
The US government has repeatedly stated its commitment to freeing both men, who they say were wrongfully detained.
The son of Soviet emigres who settled in New Jersey, Gershkovich was fluent in Russian and moved to Russia in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times newspaper before being hired by the WSJ in 2022.
He was the first US journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War.
Russian prosecutors alleged that Gershkovich had gathered secret information on the orders of the US Central Intelligence Agency about a company that manufactures tanks for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, which he and his employer denied.
Officers of the FSB security service arrested him on March 29, 2023, at a steakhouse in Yekaterinburg, 900 miles east of Moscow. He had since been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.
Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, was arrested in 2018 in Moscow, where he was attending a friend’s wedding.
He maintains his innocence, saying the charges were fabricated.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of ‘Palace of justice,’ in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024
To mark the one-year anniversary of his arrest, the Wall Street Journal published a powerful blank page with the headline: ‘His Story Should Be Here’
Details about the conditions both men have been facing behind bars are scant and in recent days, Whelan’s lawyer said she had lost track of where he was being housed.
His family previously told how he had been attacked in prison at the remote IK-17 camp in Mordovia by an inmate who allegedly punched him in his face and broke his glasses.
US officials have repeatedly accused Russia of using Gershkovich and Whelan as bargaining chips for a possible prisoner exchange.
Russia previously pushed for the release of former Federal Security Service (FSB) colonel Krasikov in prisoner negotiations around the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner, who was detained on drug possession charges.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident journalist also jailed in Russia, was also reported to have disappeared from view, prompting speculation he is among those released
Russia previously pushed for the release of former Federal Security Service (FSB) colonel and convicted hitman Vadim Krasikov as part of prisoner swap negotiations sparking speculation he could be released although this has not been confirmed
Krasikov was convicted of gunning down a Georgia-born Chechen separatist in broad daylight in a central Berlin park in June 2019.
He rode up to his victim on a bicycle and executed him in Berlin’s Kleine Tiergarten park in December 2021. A German court called it a ‘state-contracted killing.’
Griner was ultimately released in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout.
