Americans freed from Russian penal colonies in largest East-West prisoner swap since Cold War (2024)

Three Americans who were sentenced to years in Russian penal colonies after secret "sham" trials are among 24 people who have been freed under the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, the US says.

The freed Americans include the Wall Street Journal's Moscow correspondent Evan Gershkovich and car parts company executive Paul Whelan, who were each serving 16-year sentences on spying charges that the US says were false.

Also released was Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter for a US-funded radio network in Europe, who was last month jailed for six and a half years for "spreading false information" about the Russian military.

British-Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Pulitzer Prize winner who had written for the Washington Post, was also freed. He had been sentenced to 25 years' jail for treason in 2023.

US President Joe Biden said 16 people were released from Russian detention under the deal. They included five Germans and seven Russian dissidents "who were political prisoners in their own country".

"The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy," Mr Biden said.

"Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over."

The swap was coordinated by Türkiye, its intelligence agency said, and the American and German prisoners were taken to its capital, Ankara, before they were able to return home.

Eight Russians — who were being held in the US, Germany, Poland, Norway, and Slovenia — were released too. They included Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov, who was jailed in Germany for killing a former Chechen militant in a Berlin park in 2019.

An 'absurd predicament'

Gershkovich was arrested in March, 2023, while dining at a steakhouse in Yekaterinburg, almost 1,500 kilometres east of Moscow. He went on trial behind closed doors in June, andwas sentenced to 16 years' jail in July.

Russian prosecutors alleged he was working for the CIA and had gathered intelligence about a company that manufactures tanks used in Russia's war on Ukraine.

He was the first American journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War.

The Wall Street Journal's editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, said the "bogus case against" Gershkovich represented a blow to press freedom, a warning to journalists covering the Kremlin, and a new tension in America's relationship with Russia.

"But at the centre of it all was Evan, our 32-year-old Moscow correspondent from New Jersey, who likes to cook and supports Arsenal Football Club, and who loved living in and reporting on Russia," Tucker wrote in a letter to readers.

"He was our inspiration, the galvanising force. We watched him deal with his absurd predicament with strength, composure, humour and a 'heart-sign' from behind the walls of his courtroom glass cage."

Whelan had been imprisoned for much longer. The Canadian-born marine-turned-corporate executive was working for US car parts supplier BorgWarner when he was arrested in Russia in 2018.

He was accused of working as a spy at a rank of colonel or higher. Investigators said he had a hard drive containing classified information when he was detained at Moscow's Metropol Hotel.

Whelan said he was in Russia for a friend's wedding and had been given the drive in a sting by a Russian friend. He said he believed it contained holiday photos.

He was also sentenced to 16 years' jail after a behind-closed-doors trial. Like Gershkovich's trial, Whelan's was widely considered a sham by American and independent observers.

"Paul was held hostage for 2,043 days," his family said in a statement.

"His case was that of an American in peril, held by the Russian Federation as part of their blighted initiative to use humans as pawns to extract concessions."

The family said media attention had been crucial.

"Those first years were hard when the Trump administration ignored Paul's wrongful detention, and it was media attention that helped to finally create critical mass and awareness within the US government."

Navalny 'was supposed to be part of deal'

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was overcome with emotion when detailing the deal at a press conference in Washington.

"I've spent a lot of time with the families of Evan and Paul and Alsu and most of the time, as you can imagine, those are tough conversations," he said.

"But not today. Today was a very good day, and we're going to build on it, drawing inspiration and continued courage from it for all of those who are held hostage or wrongfully detained around the world."

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They include American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, he said.

Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony in 2022 for trying to enter Russia with doctor-prescribed medicinal marijuana.

Former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February, was supposed to be part of the deal, Mr Sullivan confirmed.

The US had no direct engagement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, no money exchanged hands and no sanctions were lifted, he said.

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