Americans Gershkovich and Whelan among the 24 freed in largest post-Soviet US-Russia prisoner swap
By The Associated Press
The United States and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan in a multinational deal that set some two dozen people free, according to officials in Turkey, where the exchange took place.
The trade followed years of secretive back-channel negotiations despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Gershkovich is a Wall Street Journal reporter who was accused of spying and arrested in March 2023. The Federal Security Service alleged he was acting on U.S. orders to collect state secrets but provided no evidence to support the accusation. Washington designated him as wrongfully detained.
Whelan is a Michigan corporate security executive who was jailed in Russia on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless.
In a statement posted online, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President and CEO Stephen Capus acknowledged media reports that a journalist working for the broadcaster, Alsu Kurmasheva, would be released as part of the deal.
