Russia Releases U.S. Journalist And Marine Veteran In Major Prisoner Swap

The United States and Russia have completed one of their biggest multinational prisoner swaps since the Soviet era.

On Thursday, Russia released four U.S. residents, which included journalist Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan.

Secretary Antony Blinken wrote in a statement, “Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and Alsu Kurmasheva are on their way to the United States to reunite with their families. I’m grateful for all of those who worked to secure their freedom and for our allies and partners who made this deal possible.”

Biden also released a message and shared, “The deal that secured the freedom of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir was a feat of diplomacy.”

“All told, we’ve negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia – some of whom were unjustly held for years,” added Biden.

The deal that secured the freedom of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir was a feat of diplomacy.

All told, we’ve negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia – some of whom were unjustly held for years.

All have endured unimaginable suffering.

Today, their agony is over.

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 1, 2024

𝐍𝐄𝐖: The biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War could be underway including American journalist Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident, all jailed in Russia.

The swap could involve as many as 30 prisoners… pic.twitter.com/8Wd7Qjevk7

— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) August 1, 2024

Talk about a birthday gift!

Pres. Biden sang an early "happy birthday" to the daughter of Alsu Kurmasheva, one of the American citizens released in the prisoner exchange with Russia.

"Now she gets to celebrate with her mom." https://t.co/6Iwxc9Fm7A pic.twitter.com/JqqAQQCKAm

— ABC News (@ABC) August 1, 2024

Here’s what AP reported:

The United States and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan in a multinational deal that set some two dozen people free, according to officials in Turkey, where the exchange took place.

The trade followed years of secretive back-channel negotiations despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Breaking: Russia freed wrongly convicted WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich as part of the largest and most complex East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War https://t.co/MAPTNZ6Wdf pic.twitter.com/kNW9cezaDg

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 1, 2024

Check out what NBC News reported:

Four U.S. residents — including journalist Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan — were released Thursday, part of a major multinational prisoner exchange the likes of which has not been seen since the Cold War.

The massive deal, cut among seven nations, involves 24 people, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens held in Russia, and eight Russians imprisoned in the U.S., Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland.

Gershkovich, a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, was arrested in March 2023 while reporting in Yekaterinburg, an industrial city east of Moscow. In July, he was convicted of espionage in a Russian court in a trial widely condemned as a sham as his publication vociferously advocated for his release across its front pages. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Whelan, a businessman who has been detained since visiting Russia for a friend’s wedding in 2018, was also convicted of espionage and had been serving a 16-year sentence in a penal colony. The U.S. has denied those charges.

Whelan was excluded from two previous prisoner exchanges, and in an interview from prison last December, Whelan told the BBC that he considered the U.S.’s decision to leave him behind a “serious betrayal.”