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WASHINGTON: The United States and Russia completed their largest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, with Moscow freeing journalist Evan Hershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, as well as dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, as part of a multinational deal that saw two dozen people were released. for free.

Hershkovich, Whelan and Alsou Kurmashova, a journalist with dual US-Russian citizenship, arrived on American soil shortly before midnight for a joyous reunion with their families. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also there to greet them.

The trade has picked up 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. Negotiators in back-and-forth talks at one point considered a swap involving Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but after his death in February they eventually struck a 24-man deal that required significant concessions from European allies, including the release of a Russian assassin and ensuring freedom. for a group of journalists, suspected spies, political prisoners, etc.
President Joe Biden announced the exchange, by far the largest in a series of exchanges with Russia, a diplomatic feat while welcoming the American families back to the White House. But the deal, like others before it, reflects an inherent imbalance: The U.S. and allies gave up Russians accused or convicted of serious crimes in exchange for Russia's release of journalists, dissidents and others imprisoned in the country's highly politicized judicial system on charges , exposed by the West as far-fetched.
“These kinds of deals come with tough requirements,” Biden said, adding, “There is nothing more important to me than protecting Americans at home and abroad.”

Under the deal, Russia freed Hershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who was jailed in 2023 and convicted in July on espionage charges that he and the U.S. government strongly denied. His family said in a statement published by the newspaper that “we can't wait to give him a big hug and see his sweet and brave smile up close.” The paper's editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, called the day “a joyous day”.

“While we waited for this momentous day, we were determined to be as loud as possible on Evan's behalf. We are so grateful for all the voices that were raised when he was silent. We can finally say in unison, 'Welcome home, Evan,'” she wrote in a letter posted online.

Also freed was Whelan, the Michigan corporate security chief who has been in prison since 2018, also on espionage charges that he and Washington have denied; and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsou Kurmashova, a dual US-Russian citizen, convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military. Her family and employer rejected the accusations.
Among the freed dissidents was Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who served 25 years in prison on treason charges widely seen as politically motivated, as well as several associates of Navalny. Among the freed critics of the Kremlin were Oleg Orlov, a veteran human rights activist convicted of discrediting the Russian military, and Ilya Yashin, imprisoned for criticizing the war in Ukraine.
The Russian side got Vadim Krasikov, convicted in Germany in 2021 and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park two years ago, apparently on the orders of Moscow's special services. Throughout the negotiations, Moscow persistently sought his release, and Putin himself raised this question.

At the time of Navalny's death, officials were discussing a possible exchange involving Krasikov. But when that prospect was erased, senior US officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, made a new push to encourage Germany to release Krasikov. After all, the few prisoners Russia released were German citizens or dual German-Russian citizens.
Russia also received two alleged sleeper agents who are in prison in Slovenia, as well as three people indicted by US federal authorities, including Roman Seleznev, a convicted computer hacker and the son of a Russian lawmaker, and Vadim Kanashchenko, a suspected Russian intelligence operative. intelligence. providing the Russian military with American-made electronics and ammunition. Norway returned an academic arrested on suspicion of being a Russian spy; Poland returned a man detained on charges of espionage.
“Today is a powerful example of why it's so important to have friends in this world,” Biden said.

In all, six countries released at least one prisoner, while a seventh, Turkey, took part by hosting an exchange in Ankara.
Biden made securing the release of Americans illegally detained abroad a top item on his foreign policy agenda in the six months before he leaves office. In an Oval Office address discussing his decision to drop his bid for a second term, Biden said, “We are also working around the clock to bring home Americans who are unjustly detained around the world.”
He grabbed the hand of Whelan's sister, Elizabeth, one Thursday and said she practically lived in the White House when the administration tried to free Paul. He then motioned for Kurmashov's daughter Miriam to come closer and took her hand, saying it was her 13th birthday. He asked everyone to sing “Happy Birthday” with him. She wiped the tears from her eyes.
The Biden administration has now brought home more than 70 Americans detained in other countries as part of deals that required the U.S. to give up a wide range of convicted felons, including those for drug and gun crimes. The exchanges, while celebrated with fanfare, have drawn criticism that they encourage future hostage-taking and give adversaries leverage over the US and its allies.
The US government's chief hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens, sought to defend the deals, saying the number of Americans illegally detained had actually fallen even as exchanges increased.
Tucker, the magazine's editor-in-chief, acknowledged the debate, writing in a letter: “We know the US government is well aware, as are we, that the only way to prevent an accelerating cycle of arrests of innocent people as pawns in a cynical geopolitical game is to remove the incentive for Russia and other countries that follow the same disgusting practice.”

Although she called for a change in the dynamic, “for now,” she wrote, “we celebrate Evan's return.”
Thursday's exchange of 24 prisoners surpassed the 14-person deal that was struck in 2010. In the exchange, Washington freed 10 Russians living in the US, while Moscow deported four Russians, including Sergei Skripal, a double agent who cooperated with British intelligence. In 2018, he and his daughter almost died in Britain from nerve agent poisoning, which is blamed on Russian agents.
There has been speculation for weeks that the exchange of loved ones was due to a series of unusual events, including the speedy trial of Hershkovich, which Washington dismissed as a sham. He was sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony.
In a secret trial that ended in two days the same week as Hershkovich, Kurmashova was convicted on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military, a charge denied by her family, her employer and US officials. Also, in recent days, several other figures, who are imprisoned in Russia for speaking out against the war in Ukraine or for working with Navalny, were transferred from prison to unknown places.
Gershkovich was detained on March 29, 2023, when he was on a business trip in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was collecting classified information for the US. The son of Soviet émigrés who settled in New Jersey, he moved to Russia in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times before being hired by the Journal in 2022.
Hershkovich was found to be illegally detained, as was Whelan, who was detained in December 2018 after traveling to Russia for a wedding.
Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence, was not involved in previous high-profile deals involving Russia, including Moscow's April 2022 exchange of imprisoned Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted in a smuggling ring drugs. . In December of that year, the United States released notorious arms dealer Victor Booth in exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was jailed on drug charges.
“Paul Whelan is on the loose. Our family is grateful to the United States government for making Paul's freedom a reality,” his family said in a statement.