US, Russia complete biggest prisoner swap in post-Cold War

WASHINGTON/ MOSCOW/ ANKARA:

US journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan were released by Russia on Thursday as part of the biggest East-West prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War, a complex deal negotiated in secrecy for more than a year.

The White House said the US had negotiated the trade with Russia, Germany and three other countries. It involved 24 prisoners, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners held in the West being sent back to Russia. Germany confirmed they included Vadim Krasikov, convicted of murdering an exiled dissident in Berlin.

President Joe Biden hailed the deal as "a feat of diplomacy and friendship" and praised Washington's allies for their "bold and brave decisions". "This would not have been possible without our allies," he said, adding: "Today is a powerful example of why it's vital to have friends in this world."

Trump, who said he did not have details of the swap, asked whether "murderers, killers, or thugs" were released. "Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps," he said on social media.

Also involved in the swap were Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus. Turkey coordinated the exchange. The Kremlin said Moscow's decision to pardon and free prisoners had been made in order to bring Russian captives home.

"The decision to sign the (pardon) decrees was made with the aim of returning Russian citizens detained and imprisoned in foreign countries," it said in a statement.

The last major exchange between the United States and Russia in 2010 involved 14 prisoners. In December 2022, Russia traded U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years for having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, for arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence in the US Krasikov is a colonel in the Russian FSB security service who was serving a life sentence in Germany for murdering an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in a Berlin park.

Russian President Vladimir Putin himself had indicated he wanted Krasikov back. The German government, commenting on the swap deal, said it was "not an easy decision" to free him.

Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death in Belarus on terrorism charges, was pardoned by President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally, prior to being freed. Also freed was Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison on July 19, the same day as Gershkovich and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident and US resident serving 25 years for treason after saying in March 2022 that Putin was bombing Ukrainian homes, hospitals and schools.

Released along with them were human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin. Many of those freed had worked with Alexei Navalny, Russia's leading opposition figure, who died in unclear circumstances in an Arctic penal colony in February. His widow Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue his work, hailed the releases as "a great happiness."