Journalist Evan Gershkovich, ex-marine Paul Whelan to be released in major US-Russia prisoner swap: reports

Detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former marine Paul Whelan are among 26 prisoners from seven countries who have been freed in a major international swap, the White House has confirmed.

Both men had been convicted of espionage offences, which they denied, and sentenced to 16 years in a Russian penal colony. The US argued both were wrongfully detained and sentenced in secret ‘sham’ trials.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for the US Government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has also been released from Russian detention. Kurmasheva was last year jailed for six-and-a-half years for spreading false information about the Russian army — allegations also rejected by the US.

Prisoners in Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway Belarus and the US are being freed along with those in Russia.

US President Joe Biden described the deal as a “feat of diplomacy and friendship”.

“All told, we’ve negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia — including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country,” Mr Biden said. 

“Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.”

Türkiye said it coordinated the swap, which is believed to be the largest east-west prisoner exchange since the Cold War.

“A [prisoner] exchange operation will take place today under the coordination of our organisation,” the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) said in a statement.

“Our organisation has undertaken a major mediation role in this exchange operation, which is the most comprehensive of the recent period.”

Prisoners had ‘disappeared from view’

Whelan and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident also jailed in Russia, had suddenly disappeared from view in recent days, according to their lawyers. 

At least seven Russian dissidents had meanwhile been unexpectedly moved from their prisons.

A lawyer for alleged cybercriminal Alexander Vinnik, a Russian held in the US, declined to confirm the whereabouts of his client to Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency “until the exchange takes place”.

RIA had also reported that four Russians jailed in the US had disappeared from a database of prisoners operated by America’s Federal Bureau of Prisons. 

It named them as Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenok and Vladislav Klyushin.

Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested in March, 2023. He went on trial behind closed doors in June, and was sentenced to 16 years’ jail in July.

Russian prosecutors alleged he was working for the CIA and gathered intelligence about a company that manufactures tanks used in Russia’s war on Ukraine — claims dismissed as false by the US government and the journal.

He was the first American journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War. 

Whelan has been imprisoned for much longer. The Canadian-born marine-turned-corporate executive was working for US car parts supplier BorgWarner when he was arrested in Russia in 2018.

He was accused of working as a spy at a rank of colonel or higher. Investigators said he had a hard drive containing classified information when he was detained at Moscow’s Metropol Hotel.

Whelan said he was in Russia for a friend’s wedding and had been given the drive in a sting by a Russian friend. He said he believed it contained holiday photos.

He was also sentenced to 16 years’ jail after a behind-closed-doors trial. Like Gershkovich’s trial, Whelan’s was widely considered a sham by American observers.

ABC/Reuters