(Washington) The Kremlin and the West have agreed on a major prisoner exchange, including the release of several Americans such as Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia since 2023, American media reported on Thursday.
The deal, which appears to be one of the largest since the Cold War, also includes the release of former Marine Paul Whelan, according to CNN, while ABC reports that other Western countries are involved in the swap.
There has been no immediate confirmation from U.S. officials, and the Kremlin declined to comment earlier Thursday. Speculation has been rife that a deal is imminent for days after several prisoners held in Russia disappeared from their penal colonies, an unusual phenomenon.
If this prisoner exchange takes place, it would be the first between Moscow and the West since the release in December 2022 of American basketball player Brittney Griner, detained in Russia for a drug case, in exchange for that of the famous Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, imprisoned in the United States.
A previous exchange in 2010 saw the release of 14 spies, including Russians Anna Chapman, convicted in the United States, and Sergei Skripal, a double agent imprisoned in Russia.
Large exchanges involving so many people have not taken place since those of 1985 and 1986, during the last years of the Cold War.
American journalist
The United States has pressured Moscow to release Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was sentenced in Russia on July 19 to 16 years in prison after a summary trial for “espionage,” an accusation that has never been substantiated.
The journalist, his family, his close friends and the White House have continued to denounce a completely fabricated case. Mr. Gershkovich, 32, was arrested at the end of March 2023, while he was reporting in Yekaterinburg (Urals).
After his conviction, US President Joe Biden assured that the United States was continuing to work “hard” to obtain his release. Evan Gershkovich “was targeted by the Russian authorities because he is a journalist and an American,” Mr Biden had denounced at the time.
Washington has also worked behind the scenes to secure the release of another of its nationals, former Marine Paul Whelan, 54, who also has British, Irish and Canadian citizenship.
The latter has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 for “espionage”, accusations he denies. He is among the people who have recently “disappeared” from the Russian prison system.
Plane
A plane previously used in the exchange of Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout left Moscow for the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on Thursday morning before returning to Russia late in the morning, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24.
Russian opposition figures Ilya Yashin, Oleg Orlov and Vladimir Kara-Murza are also expected to be affected by the exchange. While reports suggested an imminent exchange, Ilya Yashin’s mother, Tatiana Yashina, told AFP on Thursday morning that “nothing is known yet” for some.
The wife of dissident Oleg Orlov, Tatiana Kassatkina, told AFP she was waiting for news of the exchange. Two collaborators of the Kremlin’s number one opponent, Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February, Lilia Tchanycheva and Ksenia Fadeyeva, are also no longer listed in their place of detention.
Supporters of artist Alexandra Skotchilenko, who was sentenced to seven years for replacing supermarket price tags with messages denouncing the offensive against Ukraine, also said she had been transferred from her St Petersburg prison.
Kevin Lik, a 19-year-old Russian-German convicted of “treason,” was also transferred from his penal colony, independent media outlet SotaVision reported Tuesday.
The same situation applies to activist Daniil Krinari, sentenced in April to five years in prison for having “cooperated with Ukraine”, according to the rights NGO OVD-Info.
German Rico Krieger, sentenced to death in Belarus after being convicted of “terrorism”, could also be subject to a deal after being pardoned this week by President Alexander Lukashenko.
In exchange, Moscow is expected to hand over Vadim Krasikov, a suspected Russian agent imprisoned in Germany for the assassination of a former Chechen separatist commander in Berlin in 2019.
Other Russians potentially affected include Alexander Vinnik, a computer scientist accused of running BTC-e, a cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly laundered billions of dollars in criminal proceeds.
Also likely to be included is Vladislav Klyushin, an entrepreneur offering media and social network monitoring services, convicted in the United States for fraud. Or Vadim Konoshchenok, accused of supplying Russia with semiconductors and munitions manufactured in the United States.