On Thursday, the United States and Russia completed their largest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history, with Moscow releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan. This multinational deal, which set free around two dozen individuals, was confirmed by officials in Turkey, where the exchange took place.
The Associated Press reports that the swap is the culmination of years of secretive back-channel negotiations between Washington and Moscow. Despite relations between the two nations being at their lowest since the Cold War following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, both countries managed to reach this significant agreement.
This exchange is the latest in a series of prisoner swaps negotiated between Russia and the U.S. over the past two years. However, it stands out as the first to require significant concessions from other countries.
The release of the American detainees came at a steep price. Russia managed to secure the freedom of its nationals, convicted of serious crimes in the West, by trading them for journalists, dissidents, and other Westerners who had been convicted and sentenced under a highly politicized legal system on charges deemed bogus by the U.S. government.
The White House has not released detailed information about the specifics of the deal.
In a statement posted online, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President and CEO Stephen Capus acknowledged reports that journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who works for the broadcaster, would be released as part of the deal. Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, was convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military, charges her family and employer have vehemently denied.
Capus expressed his relief and gratitude, stating, “We welcome the news of Alsu’s imminent release and are grateful to the American government and all who worked tirelessly to end her unjust treatment by Russia.”
This latest swap follows other significant exchanges over the past two years. In December 2022, WNBA star Brittney Griner was traded back to the U.S. in exchange for notorious arms trafficker Viktor Bout. Earlier that year, Marine veteran Trevor Reed was swapped for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
As part of the swap, Russia secured the return of Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted in Germany in 2021 of murdering a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park in 2019, allegedly on orders from Moscow’s security services.
Gershkovich was arrested on March 29, 2023, during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. Russian authorities accused him, without evidence, of gathering secret information for the U.S. Gershkovich, the son of Soviet emigres who settled in New Jersey, moved to Russia in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times before joining the Wall Street Journal in 2022.
His detention involved numerous closed hearings regarding his pretrial detention extensions and appeals for his release. U.S. officials had made an offer for a swap last year, which was rejected by Russia, and no further public offers were made until now.
Paul Whelan, detained in December 2018 while attending a wedding in Russia, was convicted of espionage charges. Both Whelan and the U.S. have maintained that the charges were false. He is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence and had been excluded from previous high-profile deals.
