Vice President Kamala Harris was not involved in the diplomacy that got journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan freed from Russian prisons – but she was on hand to serve up some trademark word salad as they touched US soil for the first time.
Harris, the presumptive 2024 Democratic nominee to replace President Joe Biden, had just embraced the prisoner-swap duo as they got off a jet at Joint Base Andrews just before midnight, when she walked over to the gaggle of reporters and let loose.
‘This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy,’ Harris said in her latest word salad.
Stuttering and seemingly stumbling over her words at times, the democrat added: ‘[A]nd strengthening alliances.
‘This is just an incredible day’, she finally concluded, as the president looked on.
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The plane carrying the formerly detained Americans landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after taking off from Ankara, Turkey, around 8:00pm local time.
Gershkovich,32, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was seen on Thursday while boarding a plane in Turkey. He had been wrongly accused of espionage, and was detained in Russia while on assignment on March 29 of last year.
Whelan, a 54-year-old ex Marine, was sentenced to 16 years in 2020 after being detained two years earlier on suspicion of spying. Both were freed Thursday as part of the East-West prisoner swap – the largest since the Cold War.
After being freed from their Russian cells, the former prisoners took a four-hour flight from Moscow to Ankara. They then boarded a plane for a 10-hour trek back to the US.
She was seen running into the arms of her family Thursday, after embracing both Kamal Harris and Joe Biden upon exiting the plane.
But it was Whelan who disembarked first, followed by Gershkovich, and then Kurmasheva. All three were seen giving Harris and Biden handshakes before blissfully running into the arms of their respective families.
Whelan had been out of their grasp for five-and-a-half years, while Gershkovich’s was without him for a year and six months.
Kurmasheva was cuffed six and half years ago by a court in the central city of Kazan, for supposedly of ‘spreading false information’ about the military
Her family appeared ecstatic to see her again, as was the case with the other families.
Following the revelry, the three were cleared to take another plane to San Antonio, where they will be checked out by doctors and cleared to return home.
Minutes before landing, President Biden and his motorcade made its way to the landing area, as Vice President Kamala Harris, traveled separately.
Several Wall Street Journal employees were on the scene as well, anxiously awaiting their coworker’s arrival on the tarmac.
The prisoners were seen speaking with the president and vice president on the landing strip as onlookers cheered, in a display that, instead of occurring in private, was aired for the world to see.
Earlier in the day, Biden – who is credited with negotiating their release – delivered remarks from the White House flanked by the hostages’ relatives, hailing the occasion as historic.
‘Their brutal ordeal is over, and they’re free,’ Biden, 81, said from the Oval Office at around noon Thursday, roughly 12 hours before the trio’s landing.
He added how the former prisoners had just left Russia and were on their way home, and revealed he has spoken to them over the phone already.
He said their relatives were able to as well, paving the way for the widely seen reunion.
Biden went on to call the multi-nation deal involving seven countries ‘a feat of diplomacy’, and one that he touted as the fruits of ‘friendship.’
Meanwhile, Russian State television also touted the agreement as a victory, after airing their own broadcast of President Vladimir Putin’s own reunion with eight Russian nationals imprisoned overseas, including a man who was serving a life sentence in Germany for murder.
Also released were confirmed cyber criminals Roman Seleznev and Vladislav Klyushin, who were returned from the US.
Vadim Konoshchenko, who was accused of providing US-made electronics and ammunition to the Russian military, was also released from the US, while Spanish-Russian journalist Pavel Rubtsov was released from Poland.
Married couple Artem and Anna Dultsev were returned to Russia from Slovenia, where they were convicted of espionage charges.
Mikhail Mikushin, an academic who entered Norway as a Brazilian citizen, has also been released. He was arrested on suspicion of spying in 2022.
The convicts were released in exchange for 16 Western prisoners, including the three US citizens.
A triumphant Biden, meanwhile, told reporters on the tarmac as the reunions were taking place: ‘I was absolutely convinced we could get it done.’
After being bombarded by his Journal colleagues, a beaming Gershkovich added, ‘I’m home.’
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