The Kremlin and the West have agreed on a major prisoner swap, including the release of several Americans such as Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been held in Russia since 2023, US media reported 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 confirmation from U.S. officials so far, and the Kremlin declined to comment earlier Thursday.
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 been pressuring Moscow to release the journalist from Wall Street JournalEvan Gershkovich, sentenced on July 19 in Russia to 16 years in prison following a summary trial for “espionage”, an accusation never substantiated.
The journalist, his family, his relatives and the White House have continued to denounce a fabricated case. Mr. Gershkovich, a former AFP collaborator, 32 years old, was arrested at the end of March 2023, while he was reporting in Yekaterinburg (Urals).
“We are immensely relieved to learn that Evan Gershkovich’s ordeal, which lasted 16 months, should finally be over,” the NGO Reporters Without Borders reacted on Thursday, saying it impatiently hoped for “his safe return to the United States.”
Washington has also worked to secure the release of other of its nationals, including Paul Whelan, 54, who also has British, Irish and Canadian citizenship and was convicted in 2018 of “espionage,” charges he denies.
Like other prisoners, Mr Whelan had recently “disappeared” from the Russian prison system, fuelling speculation about an imminent deal between Moscow and Western countries.
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.
Two collaborators of the Kremlin’s number one adversary, Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February, Lilia Tchanycheva and Ksenia Fadeïeva, 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, said she had also been transferred.
The same situation applies to the young Russian-German Kevin Lik and the activist Daniil Krinari, according to NGOs and media.
German Rico Krieger, sentenced to death in Belarus, could also be the subject of 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 a cryptocurrency exchange platform accused of money laundering. Also, Vladislav Kliouchine, convicted in the United States for fraud, and Vadim Konochtchenok.