WASHINGTON (AP) — This Thursday, prisoners Evan Gershkovich, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, were released in Turkey as part of a massive prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia. Both had been convicted of espionage charges in Russia, which the US government considered unfounded.
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The agreement will be the most recent exchange between Washington and Moscow in the last two years, following the swap carried out in December 2022, which returned WNBA star Brittney Griner to the United States (who is now competing in the Olympics) in exchange for the infamous arms dealer Viktor Bou.
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The prisoner exchange took place at Ankara airport, the capital of Turkey, and, according to the New York Times, involved 24 adults. Russian dissident Ilya Yashin was also released, according to Turkish authorities.
Which Russian prisoners were released?
Western countries released Russian Vadim Krasikov, convicted in Germany in 2021 for murdering a former Chechen rebel in a park in Berlin two years earlier, apparently on orders from Moscow's security services.
Speculations about a possible prisoner exchange had increased for weeks due to a confluence of unusual events, including a surprisingly quick trial and a conviction for Gershkovich that Washington considered a farce. He was sentenced to spend 16 years in a maximum security prison.
Also in recent days, other figures imprisoned in Russia for speaking out against the war in Ukraine or for working with the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, were moved from prison to unknown locations.
Why was the journalist from the Wall Street Journal in prison?
Gershkovich was arrested on March 29, 2023, during a journalistic trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains. Authorities claimed, without presenting evidence, that the journalist was gathering secret information for the United States. The son of Soviet immigrants settled in New Jersey, Gershkovich moved to Russia in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times before being hired by the Wall Street Journal in 2022.
He appeared in over a dozen closed-door hearings due to the extension of his pre-trial detention or appeals for his release. He was presented before the court in handcuffs and in the defendant's cell, frequently smiling at the numerous cameras.
Last year, US officials made an offer to exchange Gershkovich, which was rejected by Russia, and since then, the Biden administration has not made any potential agreement public.