The United States and Russia have completed their largest prisoner swap, on Thursday, with 24 individuals being released in a significant post-Soviet era exchange, as confirmed by the US.
According to BBC, this comes as the largest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War resulting in Moscow releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan as part of a multinational agreement.
The White House announced that 16 prisoners were freed and are now en route to Europe and the US.
Among them is Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich.
In exchange, eight Russian prisoners have been released from facilities in the US, Norway, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia.
These included individuals accused of intelligence activities, and the children of two prisoners also returned to Russia.
The swap occurred on the runway at Ankara airport earlier on Thursday.
President Joe Biden confirmed that US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, and Russian-British activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who holds a US green card, are also on their way back to the US.
The deal, which took over 18 months to finalize, seems to have hinged on Moscow’s demand for Vadim Krasikov’s return. Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for an assassination in a Berlin park, is now back in Russia.
Senior US administration officials described Krasikov as a “bad dude” and noted he was “certainly the biggest fish the Russians wanted back.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with other senior officials and a guard of honour, greeted the returning Russians at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport.
Earlier discussions for a prisoner swap had included jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but those plans fell through when he died in February. His widow, Yulia, welcomed the swap, calling it a “joy.”
“Every released political prisoner is a huge victory and a reason to celebrate,” she said in a post on X. “No one should be held hostage by Putin, subjected to torture, or left to die in his prisons.”
The White House views this deal as the most complex exchange in US-Russian history.
Mr. Biden called it a “feat of diplomacy,” thanking the many countries that participated in the “difficult, complex negotiations” at his request.
He emphasized that those released had been convicted in “show trials” and sentenced to “long prison terms with absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever.”
Biden also spoke with the families of the three Americans and Kara-Murza from the Oval Office after the exchange was completed.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy expressed his support for the releases, especially of Kara-Murza and Whelan, who hold British citizenship.
NATO commended the release of prisoners, attributing it to the collaborative efforts of alliance members.
“We welcome the release today of several political prisoners from Russia. The deal that secured their freedom was negotiated by several NATO allies working together,” spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah stated.
Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, expressed gratitude to President Andrzej Duda and the security services for their role in facilitating the exchange.
“The prisoner exchange operation has just ended, thanks to which Russian opposition heroes and citizens of NATO countries detained in Russia left Russia. The action was possible thanks to the involvement of our state. I would like to thank the President and the services for their exemplary cooperation,” Tusk wrote on X.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin announced that 13 prisoners had been pardoned to secure the return of Russians held abroad.
There was no explanation for the omission of the names of two Germans, Patrick Schobel and Herman Moyzhes, from the pardon list.
German citizen Rico Krieger, who had been sentenced to death in Belarus but was pardoned earlier this week by the country’s leader Alexander Lukashenko, was also released.
The exchange included Russian political prisoners Ilya Yashin and Oleg Orlov.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz supported the swap, stating, “the right decision, and if you had any doubts, you will lose them after talking to those who are now free.”
Scholz added that many of the prisoners had feared for their health and lives after meeting with some at Cologne Bonn Airport.
Earlier, the Turkish presidency reported that prisoners from both sides were taken off aircraft at Ankara airport, moved to secure locations under Turkish security supervision, and then boarded planes to their respective destinations.
It was confirmed that 26 individuals were involved in the exchange, including two children who returned to Russia with their parents, Artyom Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, a Russian couple convicted of spying in Slovenia.
This swap follows days of speculation about a major exchange, which intensified after several dissidents and journalists imprisoned in Russia were relocated from their cells to unknown locations.
While secret prison transfers are common in Russia, the multiple disappearances of well-known prisoners were unusual.
The last significant prisoner swap occurred in December 2022, when US basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout at Abu Dhabi airport.
The previous comparable swap was in Vienna in 2010, involving 10 Russian spies held in the US exchanged for four alleged double agents held in Russia, including Sergei Skripal, later poisoned by nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in 2018.
Tensions between Moscow and the West have been especially high since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
