Ex-Marine Whelan and WSJ reporter Gershkovich released from Russian prison in a prisoner swap.

• As part of a significant, international prisoner exchange, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were freed by Russia.
• As part of a swap, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, British-Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, five German citizens, and seven Russian citizens were released from prison in Russia.
• The families of the Americans released in the historic swap will meet with President Joe Biden.

On Thursday, two American prisoners, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, were released by Russia as part of a significant, international prisoner exchange involving twenty-four individuals.

As part of the swap, Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist, British-Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, five German citizens, and seven Russian citizens were released.

Those individuals had been incarcerated in Russian prisons for charges that their home countries vehemently contested the legitimacy of.

Eight individuals, including a spy and a convicted hitman, are being returned to Russia from various countries, including the United States, Slovenia, Norway, Poland, and Germany.

According to a Biden administration official, the release of Krasikov, who was imprisoned in Germany for murdering a former Chechen militant in Berlin in 2019, was crucial in securing Russia's agreement to the swap.

While Gershkovich, Whelan, and Kurmasheva are U.S. citizens, Kara-Murza is a permanent American resident.

President Joe Biden praised the diplomatic feat that led to the release of the Americans in a statement released by the White House, where he planned to meet with their family members.

Biden announced that 16 people, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country, have been released through negotiations.

"These women and men, who have been unjustly held for years, have finally had their suffering and uncertainty come to an end."

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stated that today's exchange would be historic during a call with reporters.

Since the end of the Cold War, no other exchange has had as many individuals involved and as many countries, close US partners and allies working together as this one, according to Sullivan.

"After numerous intricate and arduous negotiations spanning several months, it has come to fruition."

In July 2023, Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia in March 2023 on espionage charges, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a trial that the United States government has criticized as a sham.

A defense enterprise's military equipment production and repair activities were secretly monitored by a journalist who was subsequently convicted of espionage on behalf of U.S. intelligence services.

Since 2020, Whelan has been serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for alleged espionage, two years after his arrest in Moscow.

Those being released from Russian custody and sent to Germany are: Dieter Voronin, Kevin Lick, Rico Krieger, Patrick Schoebel, Herman Moyzhes, Ilya Yashin, Liliya Chanysheva, Kseniya Fadeyeva, Vadim Ostanin, Andrey Pivovarov, Oleg Orlov, Sasha Skochilenko.

Apart from Krasikov, those being sent to Russia include Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Anna Valerevna Dultseva from Slovenia, Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin from Norway, Pavel Alekseyevich Rubtsov from Poland, and Roman Seleznev, Vladislav Klyushin, and Vadim Konoshchenock from the United States.

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