Signs of imminent and major prisoner exchange between Russia and the West multiply

By Andrew Osborn, Filipp Lebedev and Lucy Papachristou

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Signs of a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Belarus on one side and the United States, Germany, Slovenia and Britain on the other, multiplied on Wednesday but there was no official confirmation of what may be the biggest swap since the Cold War.

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. marine, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident, both jailed in Russia, disappeared from view on Wednesday, their lawyers said, after at least seven Russian dissidents were unexpectedly moved from their prisons in recent days.

Online Russian media outlet "Agenstvo" reported that at least six special Russian government planes had flown to and from the regions where their prisons were located. Reuters could not immediately confirm that.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian man held in the United States, declined to confirm the whereabouts of his client to the state RIA news agency "until the exchange takes place." But the lawyer, Arkady Bukh, was quoted by RIA as saying he'd been told by lawyers representing people imprisoned in Russia that they were "en route."

RIA also reported that four Russians jailed in the United States had disappeared from a database of prisoners operated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. It named them as Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenko and Vladislav Klyushin.

The U.S. is also holding at least two other Russian nationals, Vladimir Dunaev and Roman Seleznev, convicted of serious cybercrimes, who could also figure.

The Kremlin has declined to say whether an exchange is looming as has Russia's embassy in Washington, and there has been no comment from Western countries. Such exchanges are typically shrouded in secrecy until they happen.

Dissidents inside Russia whose supporters say they have been told that they have been suddenly moved in recent days include opposition politician Ilya Yashin, human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Daniil Krinari, who was convicted of secretly cooperating with foreign governments.

Others to have abruptly gone missing in the prison system include German-Russian citizen Kevin Lik, convicted of treason, opposition activists Liliya Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeeva, and anti-war artist Sasha Skochilenko.

Ivan Pavlov, a prominent Russian human rights lawyer now living in Prague, said the disappearance of so many people with similar profiles suggested the authorities were gathering them, probably in Moscow, for the exchange.

He said President Vladimir Putin would need to pardon them before their exchange, a necessary formality.

In December 2022, Russia traded basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years for having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, for arms dealer Viktor Bout, serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S.

The biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War took place in 2010, involving 14 people in total.

WEST SEES DETAINEES AS POLITICAL PRISONERS

In the West, the dissidents are seen by governments and activists as wrongfully detained political prisoners. All have, for different reasons, been designated by Moscow as dangerous extremists.

The exchange is also expected to include two journalists.

On July 19, U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich was convicted unusually swiftly on espionage charges that he denies. He was handed 16 years in jail and Russia has already confirmed talks about his possible exchange.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was also convicted in unusual haste in a secret trial the same day and sentenced to 6-1/2 years, accused of spreading false information about the Russian army. She denies wrongdoing.

Other U.S. nationals behind bars in Russia include former schoolteacher Marc Fogel, convicted for possessing marijuana, which he said he used for medical reasons.

In Belarus, meanwhile, President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally, on Tuesday pardoned Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death on terrorism charges, again with unusual haste and state media coverage.

Among those Moscow has signalled it wants is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving life in Germany for murdering a former Chechen militant.

A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians to time served for espionage and using fake identities, and said they would be deported, the state news agency STA reported, a move a Slovenian TV channel said was part of the wider exchange.

Reuters could not independently confirm that.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow and Filipp Lebedev and Lucy Papachristou in London; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Alexandra Hudson)