JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND - AUGUST 1: U.S. President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris greet Evan Gershkovich , a prisoner freed by Russia, as he arrives on August 1, 2024 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Their release, negotiated as part of a 24 person prisoner exchange with Russia that involved at least six countries, is the largest prisoner exchange in post-Soviet history. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris welcome Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and Alsu Kurmasheva, all prisoners freed by Russia, as they arrive at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Aug. 1, 2024. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Biden Speaks After Freed Prisoners’ Arrival
President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters on the tarmac shortly after the arrival of the three freed Americans, said the “toughest call” on the prisoner swap deal was not made by the United States, but by its allies.
“I asked them to do some things that were against their immediate self interest … particularly Germany and Slovenia,” he said shortly after midnight, going into Aug. 2.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris walk on the tarmac after welcoming home freed prisoners Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva after they arrived at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Aug. 1, 2024. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Evan Gershkovich greets his mother Ella Milman after he arrived back in the United States as President Joe Biden looks on at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Aug. 1, 2024. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Freed Americans Land on US Soil
Evan Gershkovich’s Family Shares Relief, Joy As They Await His Return
In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Government, Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich, Radio Free Europe journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan pose with an American flag in the airport lounge in Ankara, Turkey, on Aug. 1, 2024. U.S. Government/Getty Images
3 Americans Released as Part of Multi-Nation Prisoner Swap
Aircraft are parked on the tarmac at Ankara Esenboga Airport following a major US-Russia prisoner exchange coordinated with the Turkish government in Ankara, Turkey, on Aug. 1, 2024. Serdar Ozsoy/Getty Images
Prisoner Exchange Doesn’t Change Russia-Ukraine War: White House
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the sweeping prisoner swap was originally intended to include Russian dissident and long-time Putin opponent Alexsei Navalny.
Navalny died suddenly under mysterious circumstances at a Russian prison in the Arctic earlier this year. Sullivan said he spoke to the family of Navalny on the day of his death.
People lay flowers at the grave of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny following his funeral at the Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow, on March 1, 2024. Stringer/Reuters
Sullivan Says Americans Set to Land at Andrews Air Force Base ‘Later Tonight’
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on Aug. 1, 2024. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Germany Says Decision to Release Assassin Was Difficult
President Joe Biden said during a press conference Thursday that the freed Americans will soon be “wheels up on their way home to see their families” from Turkey.
He reiterated that the complex effort relied upon the cooperation of allied nations and it underscored the importance of maintaining strong international partnerships to ensure such deals continue to be brokered.
President Joe Biden, standing alongside family members of the freed prisoners, speaks about the prisoner exchange with Russia, in the State Dining Room of the White House on Aug. 1, 2024. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
‘They Never Gave Up Hope, and Neither Did We’ Blinken Says
This photo combination shows, in the centre, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and clockwise from top left are Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, corporate security executive and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, Lilia Chanysheva, former coordinator of regional offices of the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny, co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Memorial Human Rights Centre Oleg Orlov, artist and musician Sasha Skochilenko, Russian opposition activist and former municipal deputy of the Krasnoselsky district Ilya Yashin, government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tatar-Bashkir service Alsu Kurmasheva and former head of Open Russia movement Andrei Pivovarov. AP Photo
Germany Receives 12 German and Russian Nationals in Multi-Party Prisoner Exchange
3 Americans Released as Part of Multination Prisoner Swap
WASHINGTON—Three Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and one American permanent resident are being released as part of a historic prisoner swap between Russia, the United States, and several other nations.
The United States and others negotiated the release of 16 prisoners from Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners, according to President Joe Biden. The other Americans released were Radio Free Europe journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza.
“Today, we celebrate the return of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir and rejoice with their families,” Biden said in a statement.
Turkish intelligence said on Aug. 1 that it was coordinating an extensive prisoner exchange between Eastern and Western blocs.
“Our organization has undertaken a major mediation role in this exchange operation, which is the most comprehensive of the recent period,” the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) said in a statement.
The office of the Turkish president added that 10 prisoners, including two minors, had been moved to Russia, 13 to Germany, and three to the United States.
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.
The Americans Gershkovich and Whelan were imprisoned in Russia under dubious circumstances, with Russia accusing Gershkovich and Whelan of being spies.
Speculation about a major exchange has grown in recent days, as several prominent figures imprisoned in Russia for speaking out against the war in Ukraine or over their work with the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were moved from prison to unknown locations.
The exchange is part of a larger, 26-person prisoner swap between the United States, Germany, Norway, Poland, and Slovenia on one side, and Russia and Belarus on the other, with Turkey acting as an intermediary between the two sides.
For its part, Russia is expected to receive eight prisoners of its own back, including some with ties to Russian intelligence.
Among them is Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted of murder in Germany in 2019, which the judges in his case described as an assassination ordered by Russian authorities.
Likewise, 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.”
Vinnik previously pleaded guilty to money laundering in a case related to the unlawful use of $4 billion in cryptocurrency at the BTC-e exchange, for which he oversaw finances.
That same firm handled Bitcoin transactions for Fancy Bear, a Russian hacking group possibly connected to the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence arm, and which was believed to be behind cyber attacks on the Democratic National Committee in 2015 and 2016 and later hacks on the Ukrainian military.
Russian state media reported that Vinnik was among four Russians jailed in the United States who disappeared from a database of prisoners operated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons.
It named the other three as Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenok, and Vladislav Klyushin.
Marchenko pleaded guilty to laundering money to procure equipment for the Russian military, Konoshchenok was accused of procuring American-made electronics and ammunition for the Russian military, and Klyushin was convicted of hacking U.S. companies and using the ill-gotten information to conduct stock market trades.
Klyushin, like Vinnik, was also associated with co-conspirators that the Justice department described as being involved in “a scheme to interfere with the 2016 United States elections.”
The last prisoner swap between the two nations was in 2022, at which time Moscow exchanged jailed WNBA athlete Brittney Griner for international arms dealer Viktor Bout in 2022.
By Andrew Thornebrooke
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report
Pinned
