UPDATED 11:10 A.M.
MOSCOW/ANKARA (Reuters) – Jailed U.S. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were among two dozen detainees from the United States, Russia and a number of their allies freed on Thursday in the biggest prisoner exchange since the Cold War.
The White House said the U.S. had negotiated the complex trade with Russia and other countries. It said eight prisoners held in the West were being sent back to Russia.
Germany confirmed that they included Vadim Krasikov, convicted of murdering an exiled dissident in Berlin.
Turkey, which coordinated the exchange, said 10 prisoners, including two minors, had been moved to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the United States. Also involved in the swap were Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus.
“After the completion of the ratification procedures of the parties, the health checks … the prisoners were placed on the planes of the countries to which they would be travelling with the approval and instructions of the MIT,” the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) said in a statement.
It said it had authorized the return of the aircraft.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not specifically confirm a swap but was quoted by the state news agency TASS as saying that, in principle, “all our enemies should stay there (abroad), and all those who are not our enemies should return”.
In the last major exchange in 2010, 14 prisoners were exchanged.
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, serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S.
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. President Vladimir Putin had indicated he wanted him back.
Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death in Belarus on terrorism charges, was pardoned on Tuesday by President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally. He was also among those released, along with Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, Turkey said.
RUSSIAN DISSIDENTS HAD DISAPPEARED FROM VIEW
Reuters footage showed a Russian government plane on the ground in the Turkish capital Ankara.
Whelan and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident, both jailed in Russia, had suddenly disappeared from view in recent days, according to their lawyers. At least seven Russian dissidents had been unexpectedly moved from their prisons.
A lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian held in the United States, declined on Wednesday to confirm the whereabouts of his client to the state RIA news agency “until the exchange takes place”.
RIA had also reported that four Russians jailed in the United States had disappeared from a database of prisoners operated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. It named them as Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenok and Vladislav Klyushin.
Dissidents inside Russia whose supporters say they have been told that they have been suddenly moved in recent days include human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Daniil Krinari, convicted of secretly cooperating with foreign governments.
In the West, the dissidents are seen by governments and activists as wrongfully detained political prisoners. All have, for different reasons, been designated by Moscow as dangerous extremists.
A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians to time served for espionage and using fake identities, and said they would be deported, the state news agency STA reported, a move a Slovenian TV channel said was part of the wider exchange.
WSJ Editor in Chief Emma Tucker posted an open letter on the X platform that read: “Today is a joyous day for the safe return of our colleague Evan Gershkovich, who left a Russian aircraft moments ago in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, as part of a prisoner swap with Russia …
“We are grateful to President Biden and his administration for working with persistence and determination to bring Evan home rather than see him shipped off to a Russian work camp for a crime he didn’t commit.”
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow, Filipp Lebedev and Lucy Papachristou in London, Ece Toksabay in Istanbul; Writing by Andrew Osborn and Kevin Liffey; Editing by Ros Russell and Jon Boyle)
UPDATED: 8:44 A.M.
MOSCOW/ANKARA (Reuters) -Jailed U.S. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were among 26 prisoners from the United States, Russia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus being freed in a major east-west exchange on Thursday, Turkey’s presidency said.
It said 10 prisoners, including two minors, had been moved to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the United States.
Turkish intelligence had announced that it was coordinating an extensive prisoner exchange, amid signs of a major swap between Russia and Belarus on one side and Western countries including the United States and Germany on the other.
“Our organization has undertaken a major mediation role in this exchange operation, which is the most comprehensive of the recent period,” the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) said in a statement.
Both the Kremlin and the White House declined to comment when asked about a possible exchange.
Flight tracking site Flightradar24 showed that a special Russian government plane used for a previous prisoner swap involving the United States and Russia had flown from Moscow to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania, before heading back to the Russian capital.
Reuters footage showed a Russian government plane on the ground in the Turkish capital Ankara.
Whelan and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident, both jailed in Russia, had suddenly disappeared from view in recent days, according to their lawyers. At least seven Russian dissidents had been unexpectedly moved from their prisons.
A lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian held in the United States, declined on Wednesday to confirm the whereabouts of his client to the state RIA news agency “until the exchange takes place”.
RIA had also reported that four Russians jailed in the United States had disappeared from a database of prisoners operated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. It named them as Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenok and Vladislav Klyushin.
Dissidents inside Russia whose supporters say they have been told that they have been suddenly moved in recent days include opposition politician Ilya Yashin, human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Daniil Krinari, convicted of secretly cooperating with foreign governments.
In the West, the dissidents are seen by governments and activists as wrongfully detained political prisoners. All have, for different reasons, been designated by Moscow as dangerous extremists.
Among those Moscow has signaled it wants is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving life in Germany for murdering an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in a Berlin park.
A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians to time served for espionage and using fake identities, and said they would be deported, the state news agency STA reported, a move a Slovenian TV channel said was part of the wider exchange.
Reuters could not independently confirm that.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow, Filipp Lebedev and Lucy Papachristou in London, Ece Toksabay in Istanbul; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Ros Russell and Jon Boyle)
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Signs of a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Belarus on one side and the United States, Germany and Slovenia on the other, multiplied on Thursday but there was no official confirmation of what may be the biggest swap since the Cold War.
Fox News reported that jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was set to return to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange, possibly later on Thursday.
Flight tracking site Flightradar24 showed that a special Russian government plane used for a previous prisoner swap, involving the United States and Russia, had flown from Moscow to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad which borders Poland and Lithuania before heading back to the Russian capital.
Pervy Otdel (First Department), an association that specializes in defending people in Russian cases of treason and espionage, said the flight could mean that a prisoner exchange had taken place on the Polish border.
Reuters could not confirm that and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about reports of a looming major prisoner exchange, said: “I’m still not making any comments on this.”
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. marine, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident, both jailed in Russia, have suddenly disappeared from view, their lawyers said a day earlier, after at least seven Russian dissidents were unexpectedly moved from their prisons in recent days.
There were also unconfirmed Russian media reports that another dissident, opposition activist Vadim Ostanin, had been removed from his Siberian prison.
At least six special Russian government planes have flown in recent days to and from regions where prisons holding dissidents are located, online Russian outlet “Agenstvo” has reported.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian man held in the United States, declined on Wednesday to confirm the whereabouts of his client to the state RIA news agency “until the exchange takes place.” But the lawyer, Arkady Bukh, was quoted by RIA as saying he’d been told by lawyers representing people imprisoned in Russia that they were “en route” to unknown locations.
RIA also reported that four Russians jailed in the United States had disappeared from a database of prisoners operated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. It named them as Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenok and Vladislav Klyushin.
The U.S. is also holding at least two other Russian nationals, Vladimir Dunaev and Roman Seleznev, convicted of serious cybercrimes, who could figure.
There has been no comment from Western countries. Such exchanges are typically shrouded in secrecy until they happen.
Dissidents inside Russia whose supporters say they have been told that they have been suddenly moved in recent days include opposition politician Ilya Yashin, human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Daniil Krinari, who was convicted of secretly cooperating with foreign governments.
Others to have abruptly gone missing in the prison system include German-Russian citizen Kevin Lik, convicted of treason, opposition activists Liliya Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeeva, and anti-war artist Sasha Skochilenko.
Ivan Pavlov, a prominent Russian human rights lawyer now living in Prague who founded Pervy Otdel, said the disappearance of so many people with similar profiles suggested the authorities were gathering them, probably in Moscow, for the exchange.
He said President Vladimir Putin would need to pardon them before their exchange, a necessary formality. Media outlet “Important Stories” drew attention to the fact that Putin, according to a government website, had signed a number of secret decrees on July 30 which it said could be prisoner pardons.
In December 2022, Russia traded basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years for having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, for arms dealer Viktor Bout, serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S.
The biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War took place in 2010, involving 14 people in total.
WEST SEES DETAINEES AS POLITICAL PRISONERS
In the West, the dissidents are seen by governments and activists as wrongfully detained political prisoners. All have, for different reasons, been designated by Moscow as dangerous extremists.
The exchange is also expected to include two journalists.
On July 19, Gershkovich was convicted unusually swiftly on espionage charges that he denies. He was handed 16 years in jail and Russia has already confirmed talks about his possible exchange.
Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was also convicted in a secret trial the same day and sentenced to 6-1/2 years, accused of spreading false information about the Russian army. She denies wrongdoing.
Other U.S. nationals behind bars in Russia include former schoolteacher Marc Fogel, convicted for possessing marijuana, which he said he used for medical reasons.
In Belarus, meanwhile, President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally, on Tuesday pardoned Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death on terrorism charges, again with unusual haste and state media coverage.
Among those Moscow has signaled it wants is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving life in Germany for murdering an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in a Berlin park.
A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians to time served for espionage and using fake identities, and said they would be deported, the state news agency STA reported, a move a Slovenian TV channel said was part of the wider exchange.
Reuters could not independently confirm that.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow and Filipp Lebedev and Lucy Papachristou in London; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Ros Russell and Jon Boyle)
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