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Washington and Russia on Thursday completed their largest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history, with Moscow freeing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Morza, in a multinational deal. Free.

Gershkevich, Whelan and Also Kurmashova, a journalist with dual citizenship of the United States and Russia, arrived in the United States shortly before midnight for a joyous reunion with their families. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also on hand to welcome them.

Even as relations between Washington and Moscow are at their lowest level since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, trade has expanded. Negotiators in back-up talks at one point considered an exchange with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but after his death in February, they eventually signed a 24-member deal that would require significant concessions from European allies, including freedom A Russian assassin, and guaranteed freedom. For a group of journalists, espionage suspects, political prisoners and others.
President Joe Biden hailed the exchange, the largest so far in a series of exchanges with Russia, as a diplomatic feat as he welcomed back American families to the White House. But the deal, like others before it, reflected an inherent imbalance: the United States and its Russian allies accused or convicted of serious crimes in exchange for Russia's release of journalists, dissidents and others wanted by the legal system. The political intensity of the country was imprisoned for the charges observed by Russia, released. The West as a liar.
“Deals like this come with tough calls,” Biden said. “Nothing is more important to me than protecting Americans at home and abroad,” he added.

Under the deal, Russia released Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkevich, who was jailed in 2023 and convicted in July on espionage charges, which he and the US government vehemently denied. “We can't wait to hold her and see her sweet, brave smile up close,” her family said in a statement published by the newspaper. The paper's editor, Emma Tucker, called it “a happy day”.

“As we look forward to this momentous day, we are determined to be as loud as we can on behalf of Evan. We are so grateful for all the voices raised in his time of silence. In a letter that was published online, he writes: Finally, we can say with one voice, “Welcome to Ivan's home”.

Also freed was Whelan, a Michigan company security executive who had been in prison since 2018, also on espionage charges that he and Washington have denied. and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsou Kurmasheva, a dual American-Russian citizen who was convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military, charges denied by his family and employer.
Freed dissidents include Kara Morza, a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who spent 25 years on charges of treason widely regarded as politically motivated, as well as several associates of Navalny. Among the Kremlin critics freed were Oleg Orlov, a veteran human rights activist convicted of discrediting the Russian military, and Ilya Yashin, who was jailed for criticizing the war in Ukraine.
The Russian side arrested Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted in Germany in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison for killing a former Chechen rebel in a park in Berlin two years ago, allegedly on the orders of Moscow's security services. During the negotiations, Moscow insisted on his release, and Putin himself raised this issue.

At the time of Navalny's death, officials were talking about a possible exchange for Krasikov. But with that prospect out of the question, senior US officials, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, launched a new effort to encourage Germany to release Krasikov. Finally, a handful of prisoners released by Russia were either German nationals or German-Russian dual nationals.
Russia also received two suspected sleeper agents in Slovenia, as well as three men indicted by federal authorities in the United States, including Roman Selzenov, a convicted computer hacker and the son of a Russian lawmaker, and Vadim Konushchenko, a suspected Russian intelligence operative. . Providing American-made electronic equipment and ammunition to the Russian army. Norway returns a university student arrested on suspicion of Russian espionage. Poland returns the man it had detained on espionage charges.
“Today is a powerful example of why having friends is vital in this world,” Biden said.

In total, six countries released at least one prisoner, and a seventh – Turkey – participated by hosting the exchange in Ankara.
Biden made securing the freedom of Americans wrongfully held abroad at the top of his foreign policy agenda for the six months before he left office. “We are also working around the clock to bring home Americans who have been unjustly detained around the world,” Biden said in an Oval Office speech announcing his decision to drop a second term bid. “
On Thursday, he held the hand of Whelan's sister, Elizabeth, and said she was practically living in the White House as the administration tried to free Paul. He then beckoned Kormashva's daughter, Miriam, to come closer and take her hand, telling the room that it was her 13th birthday. He asked everyone to sing “Happy Birthday” with him. He wiped the tears from his eyes.
The Biden administration has already brought home more than 70 Americans detained in other countries as part of deals that require the United States to turn over a wide range of convicted felons, including drug and weapons offenses. Is. The exchanges, though celebrated with fanfare, have drawn criticism that they incentivize future hostage-taking and give adversaries leverage over the United States and its allies.
Roger Carstens, the U.S. government's top hostage negotiator, said the number of Americans wrongfully detained has actually decreased, even as exchanges have increased.
Tucker, the journal's editor, acknowledged the debate, writing in a letter: “We know that the United States and our government are acutely aware that the only way to stop the cycle is to accelerate the arrest of innocent people as pessimistic nuts. “The geopolitical games are to remove the incentive for Russia and other countries to follow the same despicable practice.”

Although he called for a change in the dynamic, “for now,” he wrote, “we're celebrating Ivan's return.”
Thursday's exchange of 24 prisoners surpassed a 2010 deal of 14. In the exchange, Washington freed 10 Russians living in the United States, while Moscow expelled four Russians, including Sergei Skripal, a double agent who worked with British intelligence. In 2018, she and her daughter were almost killed in the UK by nerve agent poisoning caused by Russian agents.
For weeks, speculation that a swap was imminent had been fueled by a confluence of unusual developments, including Gershkevich's speedy trial, which Washington considered a sham. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
In a two-day, secret trial that ended the same week as Gershkevich's trial, Kurmashova was convicted of spreading false information about the Russian military that her family, employer and US officials denied. Also, in recent days, several other figures who were imprisoned in Russia for speaking against the war in Ukraine or for collaborating with Navalny were transferred from prison to unknown places.
Gershkevich was arrested on March 29, 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Officials claimed, without providing any evidence, that he was collecting classified information for the United States. The son of Soviet immigrants who settled in New Jersey, he moved to Russia in 2017 to work at The Moscow Times before being hired by the Journal in 2022.
Gershkevich was illegally detained and Whelan was detained in December 2018 after traveling to Russia for a wedding.
Whelan, who was serving a 16-year prison sentence, has recused himself from previous high-profile deals involving Russia, including Moscow's April 2022 swap of imprisoned Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of a drug-trafficking conspiracy. have been. . In December of that year, the United States released notorious arms dealer Victor Butte in exchange for WNBA star Brittney Greiner, who was imprisoned on drug charges.
“Paul Whelan is free. Our family is grateful to the US government for making Paul's release possible.