U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia on May 14, 2019. [State Department photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain]
Russia has agreed to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan as part of a prisoner swap with the U.S., Germany, and three other nations, according to multiple reports.
The U.S. government considers Gershkovich and Whelan to have been wrongfully detained on false espionage charges, and both will be headed to locations outside of Russia. Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist detained on dubious charges, will also be freed as part of the deal.
The U.S. will be returning at least a dozen prisoners to Russia as part of the deal. Several Russian nationals with suspected ties to Russian intelligence will be given back, including Vadim Krasikov, the hitman behind a 2019 murder in Germany believed to have been ordered by Russian authorities.
Last year, Gershkovich, 32, became the first U.S. journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War, as tensions grew over the Russian war against Ukraine. The U.S. and the Journal have strongly denied the accusations against Gershkovich, and Russia never publicized any evidence to back them up.
Two weeks ago, Russian authorities sentenced him to 16 years in prison after a secret trial that was largely a forgone conclusion before it even began. Gershkovich spent a year detained in Russia’s notoriously brutal Lefortovo prision before being moved to a different facility for the trial.
“I have had no higher priority than seeking the release and safe return of Evan, Paul Whelan and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad. Evan has endured his ordeal with remarkable strength. We will not cease in our efforts to bring him home,” President Joe Biden said in a statement upon Gershkovich’s sentencing.
In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this year, Russian president Vladimir Putin expressed openness to exchanging Gershkovich after Carlson pressed him on the issue.
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