After a historically complex, monthslong negotiation involving more than six countries and two dozen prisoners, the Biden administration on Thursday announced it had secured the release of three American citizens from Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, all of whom have arrived in America.
The three returned to the United States late
Thursday night as part of a 24-person prisoner swap – one of the largest since the end of the Cold War – among the U.S., Russia, Germany and three other Western countries.
Under the terms of the agreement, 12 political dissidents held in Russia have been released to Germany. Kremlin critic and Washington Post contributor Vladimir Kara-Murza is expected to be flown to Germany, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday. Kara-Murza is a British-Russian citizen and a green card holder. His family lives in the U.S.
In return, Russia will receive eight of its nationals, including three that were being held in U.S. prisons: Vadim Konoshchenok, Vladislav Klyushin and Roman Seleznyov.
Two Russians held in Slovenia, one in Poland and another in Norway are also headed home. All have known or suspected ties to Russian intelligence, according to U.S. officials. They included a husband and wife, Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Anna Valerevna Dultseva, who were arrested in 2022 and convicted on espionage charges in Slovenia. They were each serving a 19-month sentence. They flew back to Russia with their two children.
Key among the prisoners returned to Russia, according to American officials familiar with the talks, was Vadim Krasikov, a convicted murderer who was sentenced to life in prison by a German court in 2021 for killing a Georgian asylee who had fought against Russians in Chechnya.
German judges said the killing had been ordered by Russian federal authorities and called it “state terrorism.”
Details of the deal, which was coordinated over more than half a year by multiple U.S. government agencies including the White House, State Department and Central Intelligence Agency, were closely held, though speculation about the swap had mounted in recent days after prominent Russian political prisoners, including Kara-
Murza, were moved from their respective jails in Russia.
The painstakingly choreographed exchange, apparently one of the most complex in history, finally took place on Thursday on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey.
After enduring unimaginable suffering and uncertainty, the Americans detained in Russia are safe, free, and have begun their journeys back into the arms of their families.
The deal is a significant and hard-fought win for the Biden administration, which has secured the release of more than 60 hostages or wrongful detainees from around the world over the past three years. Few cases have received a similar level of prominence or scrutiny as the ones in Russia, a longstanding geopolitical rival of the U.S. with a history of taking — and trading — foreign detainees.
“All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over,” President Biden said in a statement.Â
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