WASHINGTON – The United States and Russia completed a multi-country prisoner swap on Thursday that brought home several Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.
The exchange involved a total of 16 people from several countries who were imprisoned in Russia, including seven Russian citizens who were held as “political prisoners.” Western states released a total of eight Russians under the agreement.
President Joe Biden called the negotiations in the White House a “diplomatic masterpiece” that would not have been possible without the cooperation of allied nations.
“This deal would not have been possible without our allies Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey,” Biden said. “They stood with us and made bold and courageous decisions – releasing prisoners from their countries who were rightfully held and providing logistical support to bring Americans home.”
“So if anyone questions the importance of allies, it is this man,” he added.
Biden was accompanied in his remarks by family members of the three American hostages released on Thursday. He said they had spoken to their relatives by phone earlier in the day and planned to meet them after their plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
Biden said that during his tenure as president, he tasked his staff with finding out where Americans were being held abroad and developing plans for their release.
“To date, my administration has brought home more than 70 Americans who were wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad, many of them before I took office,” Biden said. “In addition, in 2022, I issued an executive order that would impose penalties, including sanctions and travel bans, on those who detain Americans against their will.”
Biden, who is not running for re-election, said he will continue to work to bring other wrongfully imprisoned Americans home during his remaining months in office.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during the White House press conference that officials had completed “one of the largest and certainly most complex exchanges in history.”
Journalists and dissidents released
Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while working for the Wall Street Journal and was sentenced to 16 years in prison in a secret trial last month. The Wall Street Journal and US authorities have vehemently denied the allegations.
Whelan, of Michigan, was arrested in 2018 and convicted of espionage in 2020. He and American officials repeatedly denied the charges. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in Russia.
Among those released in the prisoner exchange were Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who worked for Radio Free Europe, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his “passionate columns written at great personal risk in his prison cell.”
Kurmasheva was sentenced to In July, she was sentenced to more than six years in prison on charges of spreading “false information” about the Russian military, a charge her family and officials denied.
Kara-Murza, who has dual citizenship of Russia and the United Kingdom, is a longtime critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. Russian officials arrested him in 2022 and sentenced him to 25 years in prison in 2023.
Before his imprisonment, Kara-Murza accused Russian officials to poison him.
Biden mentioned in his remarks that Kara-Murza holds a green card and carried the coffin with US Senator John McCain at his funeral in Arizona.
Greetings from Congress
Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, wrote in a statement that Thursday was “a joyful and long overdue day for Paul, his family and all who worked tirelessly to bring him back home to Michigan.”
“Over the past few years, I have worked with government officials, my colleagues and Paul’s family to secure his release, and I am overjoyed that this day marks the end of this unimaginable nightmare for Paul and his loved ones,” Peters wrote. “Michigan welcomes him home with open arms.”
Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow released a written statement saying Whelan’s release was “wonderful news.”
“After more than five years, Paul Whelan is coming home,” Stabenow wrote. “I know the last few years have been unbearable for Paul and his family. I am so glad they will see Paul again soon.”
Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, called on the Biden administration to release Marc Fogel from a Russian prison.
“This prisoner exchange is good news for Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and their families, but Marc Fogel is still in a Russian prison,” Casey wrote in a statement.
“Marc Fogel is a Pittsburgh teacher with chronic health issues whose health deteriorated significantly while incarcerated,” Casey added. “His 95-year-old mother, Malphine, fears she will never see him again. As we celebrate today’s good news, we must not forget Marc and the Fogel family.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said in a statement he was “thrilled” about the hostages’ return to their homeland, but expressed concern that “the continued exchange of innocent Americans for actual Russian criminals held in the United States and elsewhere sends a dangerous signal to Putin and only encourages his regime to take more hostages.”
“We should also not forget the Americans who may still be held in Russia, such as Marc Fogel and Ksenia Karelina, as well as those held in other countries, including Mark Swidan, Kai Li and David Lin, who are being held in China, and Ryan Corbett, who is being held in Afghanistan,” McCaul said. “We must also bring them all home to their families.”
Sullivan said during the White House briefing that authorities were “actively working” to secure the release of Fogel from Russia as well as Americans held in Syria and Afghanistan.
The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin, said in a statement that the release of the Americans “marks a welcome end to a terrible nightmare for them and their families.”
“These Americans should never have had to endure the hardships imposed on them by the Kremlin, but thanks to the tireless efforts of the Biden-Harris administration and their families, including Paul’s sister Elizabeth, Evan’s parents Ella and Mikhail, and Alsu’s husband Pavel, their ordeal is finally over,” Cardin said.
The Maryland Democrat also urged “Americans considering traveling to Russia, especially those with dual citizenship, to learn from the experiences of these wrongfully imprisoned Americans and avoid traveling to Russia.”
