Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 (File)
Washington, United States:
American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan are set to be released by Russia as part of one of the biggest East-West prisoner swaps since the Cold War, according to US media on Thursday.
CNN and other US networks reported the news, with ABC News reporting that the exchange involved several countries and Russia.
There was no immediate confirmation from US authorities. The Kremlin declined to comment on any exchange.
“I have no comments on this matter yet,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 and convicted in July on espionage charges, in an accelerated trial denounced as a sham by the United States.
Signs of an imminent prisoner swap gained momentum on Thursday amid reports that a plane used in a previous swap deal had landed in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
Hopes have also risen in recent days after several high-profile prisoners in Russia, including Whelan, disappeared from prisons where they were serving long sentences.
Among those expected to be returned to Russia in exchange is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian citizen imprisoned in Germany for killing a former Chechen rebel commander in a brazen murder.
The switch would be a victory for President Joe Biden, whose vice president, Kamala Harris, faces Republican Donald Trump in the November election.
This would be the first prisoner swap between Russia and the West since American basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.
It would also be the biggest exchange since 2010, when 14 alleged spies were exchanged between Russia and the West. They included double agent Sergei Skripal, sent by Moscow to Britain, and undercover Russian agent Anna Chapman, sent by Washington to Russia.
Before that, large exchanges involving more than a dozen people had only occurred during the Cold War, with Soviet and Western powers carrying out exchanges in 1985 and 1986.
– ‘Pushing hard’ –
An aircraft already used in Griner and Bout’s exchange flew from Moscow to Kaliningrad on Thursday morning, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24. The flight was later tracked taking off from Kaliningrad two hours later.
As a general rule, exchanges can only happen after a conviction in Russia, and the disappearance of several important political prisoners at once is extremely rare.
Gershkovich was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg during a reporting trip. He, his employer and the US government have vehemently denied the espionage allegations against him.
Biden said after the sentencing that he was “pushing hard for Evan’s release and will continue to do so.”
Washington has also been working for the release of former Marine Whelan, 54, arrested in 2018 in Moscow and accused of espionage.
Whelan worked in security for an American vehicle parts company when he was arrested in Moscow in 2018 and has always maintained that the evidence against him was falsified.
He recently complained of feeling abandoned by Washington.
Also among the missing was journalist and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, a 42-year-old Russian and British citizen. His lawyers said Wednesday they did not know his location after being twice denied access to the facility where he was supposed to be detained.
Kara-Murza, who spoke out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia on treason and other charges. He suffers from a nervous illness and was transferred to a prison hospital earlier this month for medical examinations.
Adding to the intrigue was a case in Slovenia, where a court sentenced two Russians suspected of spying for Moscow to more than a year and a half in prison – but then ordered their expulsion from the country.
Detentions of US citizens in Russia have increased in recent years, in what Washington sees as an attempt by the Kremlin to secure the release of Russians sentenced abroad.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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