Starmer and Lammy welcome Russian prisoner swap as two British nationals freed

The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have welcomed the prisoner swap between Russia and the West which has seen British nationals Vladimir Kara-Murza and Paul Whelan released.

Among those released by Moscow are Mr Whelan, a corporate security executive with joint British nationality from Michigan, who has been jailed since 2018 on espionage charges he and Washington have denied.

Also freed was Mr Kara-Murza, who has joint Russian and British nationality and is a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who was serving 25 years on charges of treason – widely seen as politically motivated.

Mr Whelan was designated as wrongfully detained following his arrest in December 2018 after he had travelled to Russia for a wedding.

I strongly welcome the news that Russia has released a number of prisoners today, and am particularly relieved that British nationals Vladimir Kara-Murza and Paul Whelan will soon be reunited with their families

He was serving a 16-year sentence.

Their release comes as part of the biggest prisoner swap between the US and Russia in post-Soviet history.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer posted on X saying: “I welcome the release of a number of prisoners held in Russia, including Vladimir Kara-Murza, Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich.

“My thoughts are with them and their loved ones as they are reunited.

“We will continue to call on Russia to uphold freedom of political expression.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “I strongly welcome the news that Russia has released a number of prisoners today, and am particularly relieved that British nationals Vladimir Kara-Murza and Paul Whelan will soon be reunited with their families.

“Mr Kara-Murza is a dedicated opponent of Putin’s regime. He should never have been in prison in the first place: the Russian authorities imprisoned him in life-threatening conditions because he courageously told the truth about the war in Ukraine.

“I pay tribute to his family’s courage in the face of such hardship and hope to speak to him soon.

“Paul Whelan and his family have also experienced an unimaginable ordeal. I look forward to speaking to him as he returns home to his family in the United States after over five years in detention.”

Others freed include Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was jailed in 2023 and convicted in July of espionage charges that he and the US vehemently denied and called baseless; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual US-Russian citizen convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military, accusations her family and employer have rejected; associates of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny; and a German national arrested in Belarus.

The trade followed years of secretive back-channel negotiations, despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has secured the freedom of its own nationals convicted of serious crimes in the West.