WASHINGTON – A major prisoner swap involving the United States and Russia was underway Thursday, a person familiar with the matter said.
The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details have not been released publicly, did not specify who is included in the deal. But Americans considered by the US to be unjustly detained in Russia include Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich It is Paul Whelan, corporate security executive from Michigan. Both were convicted on espionage charges that the US government considered unfounded.
In a statement published online, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty president and CEO Stephen Capus acknowledged media reports that a journalist working for the broadcaster Also Kurmashevawould be released as part of the deal.
Capus said the network welcomed “the news of Alsosu’s imminent release and is grateful to the American government and everyone who worked tirelessly to end Russia’s unfair treatment of her.” Kurmasheva, who has dual Russian and American citizenship, was convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military, charges that her family and her employer rejected.
The agreement would be the last exchange in the last two years between Washington and Moscow, including a December 2022 trade that brought WNBA star Brittney Griner back to the US in exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout and an exchange earlier that year of Navy Veteran Trevor Reed by Konstantin Yaroshenkoa Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.
President Joe Biden put securing the release of Americans wrongfully detained abroad at the top of his foreign policy agenda during the six months before leaving office. In his Oval Office address to the American people, discussing his recent decision to drop his bid for a second term, the Democrat said: “We are also working day and night to bring home Americans who are unjustly detained across the world. world”.
Russia has long been interested in returning Vadim Krasikovwho was convicted in Germany in 2021 of murdering a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park two years earlier, apparently on orders from Moscow’s security services.
For weeks, speculation had been mounting that a swap was close due to a confluence of unusual developments, including an initially quick trial and conviction for Gershkovich which Washington considered a hoax. He was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison.
Also in recent days, several other figures trapped in Russia for speaking out against the war in Ukraine or because of their work with the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were transferred from prison to unknown locations.
Gershkovich was arrested on March 29, 2023, during a reporting trip to the city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. Authorities alleged, without offering any proof, that he was collecting classified information for the United States. The son of Soviet émigrés who settled in New Jersey, he moved to the country in 2017 to work at The Moscow Times before being hired by the Journal in 2022.
He has had more than a dozen closed hearings on whether to extend his pre-trial detention or appeal his release. He was brought into court in handcuffs and appeared in the defendants’ cage, often smiling for the many cameras.
American officials last year made an offer to swap Gershkovich, which was rejected by Russia, and the Democratic Biden administration has not made public any possible deals since then.
Gershkovich was found to be unfairly detained, as was Whelan, who was detained in December 2018 after traveling to Russia for a wedding. Whelan was convicted on espionage charges, which he and the US also said were false and fabricated, and is serving a 16-year prison sentence.
Whelan has been excluded from previous high-profile deals involving Russia, including those involving Reed and Griner.
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Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia, and Lee from Mongolia. Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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