President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that Russian authorities have freed Wall Street Daily reporter Evan Gershkovich along with two other U.S. citizens and a U.S. green card holder as part of a wide-ranging prisoner exchange.
The historic exchange, involving seven countries and more than 20 prisoners in total, marks a significant diplomatic achievement for Biden and a rare moment of cooperation amid deepening global tensions. “Now their brutal ordeal is over and they are free,” Biden said, flanked by 11 family members of the freed prisoners.
The President continued: “For those who question whether allies are important – they are. Today is a powerful example of why it is vital to have friends in this world, friends you can trust, work with, and depend on, especially in matters of great importance and sensitivity like this. Our alliances make our people safer.”
Gershkovich, who had been detained in Russia on false espionage charges, was released along with Paul Whelan, a former US Marine also detained on espionage charges widely considered to be spurious, and Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty detained for spreading “false information” about the Russian military. They landed in Ankara, Turkey, on Thursday morning after being released from Russian custody.
Gershkovich, 32, spent 16 months in a Russian prison after being accused of gathering information for the CIA during a mission in Yekaterinburg. The charges against him were dismissed by the US government as unfounded, and his trial was widely criticized as a sham. His release, along with Whelan and Kurmasheva, was celebrated as a major diplomatic victory for Biden, who has long been committed to securing the release of imprisoned Americans and supporting pro-democracy movements abroad.
See more information: The fight to free Evan Gershkovich
Biden acknowledged the critical role played by allied nations in securing the deal, including Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey. On the same day he dropped out of the 2024 presidential campaign, Biden called the leader of Slovenia, whose country contributed two convicted Russian spies to the deal, to discuss the details of the coordinated release, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday. fair. “The agreement that made this possible was a feat of diplomacy and friendship,” Biden said. “Several countries helped achieve this. They participated in difficult and complex negotiations at my request, and I personally thank them all.”
Whelan, 54, was arrested in December 2018 during a trip to Moscow and convicted in a highly controversial trial on charges of espionage – a verdict that was widely criticized by international observers as politically motivated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in a Russian penal colony after a trial conducted behind closed doors.
Kurmasheva, 47, was arrested in 2023 while visiting Russia to care for her sick mother, on charges of failing to register her American passport. She was later accused of spreading false information about the Russian military — a charge linked to her work as a journalist and a book she helped edit that criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison after a secret trial.
Asked what he would say to former President Donald Trump, who claimed he would have released American prisoners for nothing in return, Biden said: “Why didn’t he do that as president?”
Biden added that as part of the deal, 16 people were released from Russia — including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country. “It also says a lot about us that this deal includes the release of Russian political prisoners,” Biden said. “They defended democracy and human rights. Their own leaders threw them in prison. The United States also helped secure his release. This is who we are. In the United States, we stand for liberty, liberty, justice, not only for our own people, but for others as well. That’s why all Americans can be proud of what we achieved today.”
The deal allowed Russia to release several high-profile political prisoners, including Vladimir Kara-Murza, an Anglo-Russian dissident and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist who holds an American green card, and Ilya Yashin, a prominent opposition politician, both of whom were vocal critics of President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
The exchange also involved the release of Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian murderer who was serving a life sentence in Germany and was considered a key factor in the negotiations. The US released three Russian citizens: Vladislav Klyushin, a convicted hacker involved in a nearly $100 million stock market fraud scheme; Vadim Konoshchenok, who faced conspiracy charges due to his role in a global purchasing and money laundering network; and Roman Seleznyov, who was convicted of hacking point-of-sale computers to steal and sell credit card numbers.
The Biden administration has previously engaged in prisoner swaps, including a 2022 deal with Russia that freed women’s basketball star Brittney Griner.
Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Dailyexpressed deep relief and joy at the news, calling it a “happy day.”
“We are grateful to President Biden and his administration for working with persistence and determination to bring Evan home rather than have him sent to a Russian labor camp for a crime he did not commit,” Tucker said. he wrote.
–With reporting by Brian Bennett/Washington
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
