Russia frees Evan Gershkovich and others in biggest prisoner swap since cold war

The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been freed from Russian custody as part of a major exchange that also involved the freeing of several other foreign citizens held in Russia and numerous Russian political prisoners.

In the exchange, which took place at Ankara airport on Thursday afternoon, eight Russians held in the west returned to Russia. Among them was the Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov , who has been held in a German prison since 2019 for the murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin.

Additionally, deep-cover Russian “illegal” spies arrested in Norway and Slovenia were swapped, along with Russians held on criminal charges in US jails. Two minors were also returned to Russia, believed to be the children of the spies jailed in Slovenia.

Hazy video footage showed a Russian government plane landing at the airport in the Turkish capital before the swap. The Turkish presidency said in a statement that 10 prisoners were relocated to Russia, including two minors, while 13 prisoners left to Germany and three to the US.

Among those freed by Russia were Gershkovich, the former US marine Paul Whelan and the Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, the Turkish presidency said.

The Kremlin, commenting on the prisoner exchange, said it hoped those who had left Russian jails, whom it described as “enemies”, would stay away, the state-run Tass reported.

“I believe that all our enemies should stay there [abroad], and all those who are not our enemies should return. That’s my point of view,” the Russian news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

A possible exchange had been mooted for months, with long discussions behind closed doors involving numerous governments, and few details seeping into the public domain. Until the final moment, the governments involved tried to keep the location and details of Thursday’s exchange under wraps, fearful of last-minute hitches.

Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while reporting in the city of Ekaterinburg and was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage last month. He pleaded not guilty and the Wall Street Journal and the US government have dismissed the charges as nonsense.

Many observers have linked the initial Gershkovich arrest to a Russian policy that amounts to hostage-taking, with a view to increasing pressure on western countries to release Russian spies, hackers and assassins.

Putin has long made it clear that Krasikov was his No 1 target, which hampered US efforts to free its own prisoners, as Germany was reluctant to give up a prisoner serving time for murder to facilitate a US deal. Putin became “maniacal” about getting Krasikov back, according to one source with knowledge of Kremlin discussions. “It was a symbol that we don’t abandon our people,” said the source.

Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges in 2020. He has always maintained his innocence, and his family have been pushing for years to have him included in an exchange. Alsu Kurmasheva , a Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was also freed.

Several Russian political prisoners were freed in the swap, including Yashin, one of Russia’s most prominent opposition leaders, who was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in late 2022 for denouncing Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Vladimir Kara-Murza, a dual Russian-British citizen and longstanding opposition voice, who was sentenced to 25 years for high treason, has also been released.

Rico Krieger, a German medic who had been sentenced to death in Belarus after a closed and murky trial on charges of terrorism, was released as part of the deal. Belarus is a staunch ally of Moscow and may have expedited the trial in order to provide another element of the deal. Details of Krieger’s case only became public recently, although he was arrested last year.

There was speculation that the contours of a swap deal had been agreed in February, which could have included Gershkovich and the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, with Krasikov going in the other direction, but the exchange was called off after Navalny’s sudden death – or murder – in prison.

The Biden administration will be pleased to have finally secured the release of Gershkovich, whose case had threatened to become a political football. In a June presidential debate, Donald Trump claimed he would instantly free the journalist if he won the US election. “I will have him out very quickly, as soon as I take office, before I take office,” Trump said.