Fox News reported that Russia has agreed to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, veteran Paul Whelan, and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva in a prisoner swap.
The entire deal consisted of 24 people and six countries:
Moscow also released former Marine Paul Whelan, journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British-Russian dissident and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, sentenced to 25 years in prison on treason-related charges. Russia also released a number of political dissidents.The sweeping deal involved 24 prisoners and at least six countries, and came together after months of negotiations at the highest levels of governments in the U.S., Russia and Germany, whose prisoner, Russian hit man Vadim Krasikov, emerged as the linchpin to the arrangement.“The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy,” President Biden said moments after their release. “Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.”White House officials, U.S. diplomats and personnel from the CIA had crisscrossed Europe and the Middle East looking for friendly governments willing to release the Russian spies in their custody in return for Americans held by the Kremlin.
Krasikov received a life sentence by a “German court in 2021 for killing a Georgian asylee who had fought against Russians in Chechnya.”
The judges ruled the Russian federal authorities ordered the murder. They described it as “state terrorism.”
The deal included three Russians in American prisons: Vadim Konoshchenok, Vladislav Klyushin, and Roman Seleznyov.
The other Russians were in Slovenia, Poland, and Norway.
All of the Russian prisoners have ties to Russian intelligence.
Unlike the Russian prisoners, Gershkovich, Whelan, and Kurmasheva didn’t do anything.
Russia charged Gershkovich with espionage and sentenced him to 16 years.
Whelan received a 16-year prison sentence in 2020 for supposed espionage.
In 2023, Russia accused Kurmasheva, who has Russian and U.S. citizenship, of “disseminating false information about Russia’s military.”
A Russian court sentenced her to six and a half years in prison this year.
The Biden administration said Russia wrongfully detained Gershkovich and Whelan but not Kurmasheva.
However, the administration demanded her release in April.
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