Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan released by Russia in major prisoner swap

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were freed Thursday as part of a massive prisoner swap that took place between Russia, the U.S. and several European countries.

The Wall Street Journal said Gershkovich and other Americans disembarked from Russian aircraft in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.

Under the deal — one of the largest prisoner exchanges between Russia and the West since the Cold War and negotiated by nations bitterly divided by Russia’s war in Ukraine — 16 Westerners were freed in exchange for eight Russians held in the U.S., Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Poland.

The Westerners included three U.S. citizens — Gershkovich, Whelan and radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva — and U.S. permanent resident and Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-murza, five German citizens and seven Russian dissidents, according to National Security advisor Jake Sullivan. All were considered “wrongfully detained,’’ or, in the case of the Russians, political prisoners, he said.

“Now their brutal ordeal is over, and they are free,” President Biden said in an address from the State Dining Room in the White House. “Soon, they’ll be wheels up, on their way home to see their family.”

Among the Russians released was Vadim Krasikov, a colonel in the Russian FSB security service who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the killing of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili.

Sullivan said the exchange marked the culmination of many months of “painstaking, complex negotiations.”

“Not since the Cold War has there been a similar number of individuals exchanged in this way,” he said. “And … never, so far as we know, an exchange involving so many countries, so many partners and allies together. “

Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 by Russian security forces and accused of being a spy when he was on a reporting assignment to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. The Federal Security Service alleged that he was acting on U.S. orders to collect state secrets — charges that he, the Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government rejected as false.

Nearly two weeks ago, Gershkovich was convicted of espionage in a trial the U.S. government denounced as a sham. He was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony.

Whelan, a U.S. citizen, was detained in 2018 on espionage charges after traveling to Moscow for a fellow Marine’s wedding. The corporate security director from Michigan was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The prisoner exchange also involved the release of another journalist: Kurmasheva, a Russian American editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who was detained in October while visiting her elderly mother. On July 22, Russia sentenced her to 6½ years in prison after accusing her of spreading false information about the Russian army.

The Biden administration had called for the releases of all three prisoners.

“Journalism’s clearly not a crime — not here, not there, not anywhere in the world,” Biden said at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner in April. “And Putin should release Evan and Alsu immediately. We’re doing everything we can to bring home journalists — and all Americans, like Paul Whelan — who are wrongfully detained all around the world.”

Gershkovich, who was based at the Wall Street Journal’s bureau in Moscow until he was arrested, was the subject of an extensive “Free Evan” campaign. The Journal sold #IStandWithEvan T-shirts and put a ticker on its website indicating how many days, hours and minutes Gershkovich had been detained. On Thursday morning, the clock kept ticking at 491 days before it was replaced by a banner headline about the swap.

After Gershkovich’s conviction last month, Biden said the reporter had “committed no crime” and “was targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American.”

“There is no question that Russia is wrongfully detaining Evan,” Biden said in a statement. “Evan has endured his ordeal with remarkable strength. We will not cease in our efforts to bring him home.”

The deal marked the first high-level prisoner exchange between Russia and the U.S. since December 2022, when WNBA star Brittney Griner was released in return for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Amid the celebration, some U.S. senators questioned why the prisoner exchange left out Pittsburgh teacher Marc Fogel, whom Russia has detained since August 2021. He is serving a 14-year sentence for possession of medical marijuana used to treat a severe back injury.

“As news of a potential prisoner exchange is being reported, we urge that any swap include Pennsylvania’s Marc Fogel, along with Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich,” Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) and Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) said in a statement.

“Marc is a Pennsylvania teacher with severe health issues who has been unjustly imprisoned in a Russian prison for three years, and as the congressional members who represent Marc and his family, we have been pushing to bring Marc home as quickly as possible,” the senators said.