Reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan are reportedly among those being swapped in a prisoner swap deal between the United States and Russia.
There have been ongoing reports that a swap deal is taking place today, including movements of several aircraft, but the exact nature of the deal is yet to be confirmed.
However, Reuters news agency reports that Gershkovich and Whelan, who had been held in Russian prisons, are among those to be transferred. The Turkish presidency cited
Details of the possible exchange remain scarce, but there is speculation that it could be the largest exchange of its kind since the Cold War.
Evan Gershkovich
American journalist Gershkovich was first arrested and detained in March 2023 after Russia claimed he had been “collecting secret information” on the orders of the CIA.
President Joe Biden previously said the Wall Street Journal reporter had been “a target” and that they were “pushing hard” for his release.
Russian prosecutors alleged that he had collected secret information on behalf of the CIA about a company that makes tanks for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Gershkovich, 32, said the charges against him were false and his employer called the case a sham.
He was jailed for 16 years earlier this month after being found guilty of espionage in a trial widely seen as politically motivated.
Paul Whelan
Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, has been in custody in Russia since he was arrested in a Moscow hotel room on December 28, 2018.
Police said they caught him “red-handed” with a computer memory card containing a list of Russian secret agents.
He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison.
Whelan, who also has British citizenship, pleaded not guilty, claiming it was a sting operation and that someone else had given him the USB drive, thinking it only contained holiday photos.
Then-US ambassador to Russia John Sullivan described the case against Whelan as a “mockery of justice.”
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While we wait for more information about what’s happening, here are some of the other high-profile people detained in Russia that have been the subject of speculation.
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a dual British and Russian citizen, is being held in a penal colony in the Siberian city of Omsk on charges of treason that he says are politically motivated.
The opposition politician was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of making public statements critical of the Kremlin.
His arrest in April 2022, weeks later Russia invaded Ukraine, came as authorities intensified their crackdown on dissent to levels not seen since Soviet times.
Kara-Murza’s wife and lawyers have repeatedly raised the alarm about his deteriorating health in prison.
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Vadim Ostanin
Ostanin, an associate of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was convicted on extremism charges in July last year.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison after being found guilty of organizing an extremist community and belonging to a nonprofit organization that “infringes on citizens’ rights,” Navalny’s team said at the time.
Ostanin was detained in November 2021, several months after the Russian government labeled Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and its regional offices “extremist organizations.”
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of a possible exchange are Russian citizens held in Western prisons.
Vadim Krasikov
Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov is serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 murder of a Georgian citizen who had fought against Russian troops in Chechnya and then sought asylum in Germany.
German judges said he acted on orders from Russian authorities, who gave him a false identity, a passport and the resources to carry out the murder.
The murder and subsequent sentencing sparked a major diplomatic dispute between Russia and Germany, including tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions.
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