Biggest Russia-West exchange since Cold War sees 24 prisoners freed

Russia freed US journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan on Thursday (1 August) as part of the biggest prisoner exchange of its kind since the end of the Cold War.

The White House said the US had negotiated the trade with Russia, Germany and three other countries. The deal, negotiated in secrecy for more than a year, involved 24 prisoners, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners held in the West being sent back to Russia.

Germany confirmed that they included Vadim Krasikov, convicted of murdering an exiled dissident in Berlin.

The European Unon welcomed the release of “unjustly persecuted” detainees and called for all political prisoners to be freed.

“The European Union is relieved by the release and transfer to freedom outside Russia and Belarus of a number of political prisoners, including EU citizens, facilitated with the help of Turkey,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

US President Joe Biden hailed the deal as “a feat of diplomacy and friendship” and praised Washington’s allies for their “bold and brave decisions.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin met the prisoners returning to Russia at the airport after they landed in Moscow, and said they would be given state awards. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were due to greet those returning to the United States later on Thursday.

“Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world,” Biden said at the White House, flanked by relatives of freed prisoners.

Biden said he owed a particular debt of gratitude to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made the politically difficult choice to release Krasikov.

The deal provides the Biden administration with a marquee diplomatic success as the US presidential campaign, pitting Harris against former Republican President Donald Trump, enters its final months.

Still, the multi-country deal appeared to be a one-time exchange that does not reset the antagonistic US-Russia relationship.

US deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told CNN that US-Russia ties remain “in a very difficult place” despite the prisoner swap. “There was no trust involved in this relationship or negotiation,” Finer said.

Critics said the freeing of Russians convicted of serious crimes could encourage more hostage-taking by US foes.

Trump, who said he did not have details of the swap, asked whether “murderers, killers, or thugs” were released. “Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps,” the Republican presidential nominee said on social media.

Also involved in the deal were Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus. Turkey coordinated the exchange, which took place on the tarmac of Ankara airport.

The Kremlin said Moscow’s decision to pardon and free prisoners had been made to bring Russian captives home. “The decision to sign the (pardon) decrees was made with the aim of returning Russian citizens detained and imprisoned in foreign countries,” it said in a statement.

Russian dissidents freed

The last major exchange between the United States and Russia in 2010 involved 14 prisoners. The two countries had a high-profile exchange in December 2022, swapping US basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years for vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, for arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence.

The release of Russians convicted in the West represented a victory for Putin, who had indicated he wanted Krasikov back. Their homeland “had not forgotten you for a moment,” he told them at the airport.

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.

Among the Westerners freed was Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal journalist who had been accused of collecting sensitive military information for the US Central Intelligence Agency, a charge he and his employer denied.

Whelan is a former US marine who was serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian penal colony on espionage charges that he denied.

Rico Krieger, a German, had been sentenced to death in Belarus on terrorism charges. He was pardoned by President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally, prior to being freed.

Also released was Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison on July 19, the same day as Gershkovich, as well as Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident and US resident serving 25 years for treason after saying Putin was bombing Ukrainian homes, hospitals and schools.

Released along with them were human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin.

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.

Many of those freed had worked with Alexei Navalny, Russia’s leading opposition figure who died in unclear circumstances in an Arctic penal colony in February. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, confirmed the exchange had been intended to include Navalny before his death.

Birthday gift

The exchange comes in the waning months of Biden’s term in office, years marked by a sharp increase in tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden announced last month that he was abandoning his reelection bid.

A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians to time served for espionage and using fake identities and said they would be deported. Both were among those returned to Russia, according to an official US list.

Also returned to Russia and released from the US were Roman Seleznev and Vladislav Klyushin – both convicted of cyber crimes – and Vadim Konoshchenok.

WSJ Editor in Chief Emma Tucker posted an open letter on the X platform, calling it a “joyous day.”

“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,” she said.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

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